Parking worries dominate public facility review of biomedical center

Parking and traffic have emerged as a dominant concern around the relocation of Northern Kentucky University’s Chase Law School and the local branch of UK’s College of Medicine to Covington.

These concerns were on full display last week at a meeting of the Kenton County Planning Commission, which was set to vote on a public facility review of the land on East Rivercenter Boulevard, which has been dubbed the “Commonwealth Center for Biomedical Excellence,” where the relocation will occur. Although the commission eventually approved the public facility review, they explicitly acknowledged the gap in knowledge about the project’s effect on parking in their motion.

The land on which the center will sit is owned by the Northern Kentucky Port Authority. The Northern Kentucky Port Authority is a state agency and is, thus, exempt from zoning laws and historical preservation standards. Still, it has to go through a public review process with the Planning Commission to see how well the development plan conforms with comprehensive planning and land use and give the public time to leave comments. School districts must go through the same process.

Public facility review votes from the Planning Commission are not binding.

The land itself is a 1.9-acre parcel located on East Rivercenter Boulevard, near the Northern Kentucky Convention Center. It’s currently a 180-space parking lot.

The area around which the center is slated to sit is already well-developed, containing numerous big landmarks. Besides the Convention Center, there’s also the Kenton County Justice Center, the Kenton County Garage, a TANK depot and multiple hotels. It’s also near the Central Riverfront Development site.

Covington ordinance requires a parking study for university construction, and the Port Authority contracted with Fort Mitchell-based Compass Infrastructure Group to perform one, which you can read here.

It came away with several conclusions: There were an average of 1,045 available parking spaces in the surrounding area at any point throughout the day. Peak parking demand was projected at 621 spaces with a peak demand of 451 for the center itself. Patrick Denbow, Senior Planner with Kenton County Planning and Development Services, stated the peak demand calculation was based on activity at the facility itself, not the surrounding properties.

Port Authority Executive Director Christine Russell acknowledged the parking issue early in the discussion, saying, “I know that’s a very important topic for this project.” The issue quickly absorbed much of the remaining discussion.

No members of the community spoke during the public comment section, but two people – who did not attend the meeting – submitted written statements for the record.

The first was former Covington Mayor Joe Meyer, who characterized the Compass parking study as “inadequate” and encouraged the Planning Commission to table its vote until a more thorough study could take place.

The second was an email from Northern Kentucky Tribune Editor and former Scripps executive Judith Clabes, who attached an agreement between the Port Authority and Technology Towers, a Corporex LLC subsidiary, that guarantees 70 parking spaces in the new parking garage for businesses in Corporex-owned properties who have used the current parking lot for at least 100 years. Clabes points out a “no recording” clause in the agreement, which she suspects was “to keep the details from becoming public.” Corporex owns several buildings in that district.

Russell briefly made mention of the agreement in her address to the commission: “We want those businesses to thrive… Us basically earning no money on those spots is our way of contributing to the local economy.”

One planning commissioner, Covington Rep. Sarah Flem, expressed similar concerns as the ones in Meyer’s letter.

“The utilization study was done in February,” Flem said. “February, to my knowledge, is not a peak time for the Convention Center. I think that a one-month utilization review is probably not enough in order to fully understand the true parking needs of the community.”

Other commissioners had questions about building materials and pedestrian safety, as well as parking.

Northern Kentucky Convention Executive Director Center Gretchen Landrum also spoke before the commission, and while she seemed appreciative of working with the Port Authority, she admitted that no broader traffic study had been completed, which meant the amount of data everyone was working with was limited.

“We just want to make sure there’s a lot of opportunity in this area right now, and that people aren’t working off their own individual data that pertains to just their portion,” Landrum said, “that that data is a collective group of data that we can all share to make sure that we’re doing what’s best for this community.”

The Convention Center itself is undergoing a $45 million modernization and expansion, which Landrum said would increase its hotel-room-night capacity from its current 35,000 per year to 60,000 per year. The Convention Center is expected to close in July 2027 to begin the work and will likely purchase a block of the CCR site to expand its outdoor space.

The commissioners seemed to be on the same page that the proposal conformed with county comprehensive planning in the strictest sense. Commission Chair Brian Dunham emphasized that, really, that was where the commission’s role began and ended.

“From our perspective, we have a pretty narrow role here,” said Dunham. “Simply, is it consistent with the comprehensive plan, or not.”

Much to his chagrin, this did little to stall discussions about the parking issue.

“The information that’s presented [in the study], I don’t think is a picture of what it is,” said Covington Rep. Kareem Simpson. “What my issue is, once you see what that complete picture is, then you can make a better judgment how to move forward.”

Park Hills Rep. Paul Ryan agreed.

“In my opinion, this warrants a suggestion,” Ryan said.

The commissioners then debated whether or not it was in their purview to offer suggestions in a public facility review. Simpson eventually made a motion to approve the review, and – after more discussion to tease out the nuances of his motion – acknowledged the gap in information about traffic and parking. Ryan seconded his motion, and then the commission cast a 15 to 2 vote.

The Port Authority recently spent $3.8 million, according to Kenton County property records, to purchase the land from the Butler Foundation, a grant-making organization created by Corporex Founder Bill Butler.

Development plans submitted to the Planning Commission prior to Thursday’s meeting include a public plaza, a seven-story building for the schools themselves and a parking garage with 170 spaces. Nestor Melnyk, an architect with MSA Design, the firm contracted to head up designing the facility, also informed the commission that there had been preliminary talks of possibly adding an eighth floor.

The Commonwealth Center itself has received much fanfare for the purported economic and educational benefits it will bring to the city and region. Once completed, the center will return Chase Law School to Covington, its original location from 1972 to 1981. Moreover, the additional space will enable the UK College of Medicine to expand its Northern Kentucky campus enrollment by 40%, according to a press release from the Port Authority earlier this year.

When asked if the Port Authority had any plans to perform additional studies on parking and traffic, following the commission’s vote, Russell said: “They are obviously all very passionate about having the best possible development, and we will take their recommendations under advisement.”

Kenton Hornbeck contributed reporting to this story.