The Covington City Commission has approved a zoning change that will allow Orleans Development to convert an old warehouse in the city’s Westside neighborhood into 39 apartment units.
The zoning change follows a positive recommendation from the Kenton County Planning Commission in December. The commission unanimously voted to approve the change at their meeting Tuesday evening. The commissioners engaged in no discussion on the matter upon casting their vote.
The property in question is located at 1564 Banklick St. near the intersection of West 16th and Russell streets. Covington resident Thurman Wenzl appealed the approval, stating the developer’s proposed rent ranges didn’t “speak to the needs of the community,” according to records from Kenton County Planning and Development Services.
The developer put the rent range of the apartments between $1,150 a month and $1,495 a month, depending on their size. The plan is to convert the building into a four-floor apartment complex with 39 units (a single studio apartment and 38 one-bedroom apartments) and 52 off-street parking spaces.
Usually, zoning change recommendations stop at the planning commission, but city residents can challenge the planning commission’s recommendation within 21 days if they take issue with it. Wenzl’s appeal escalated the final approval of the zoning change to the city government. No one spoke out against the zoning change when it came before the planning commission.
From there, the city commission could either hold a new public hearing to get residents’ feedback, similar to the public hearings that take place before the planning commission, or simply run it through the normal legislative process. The commission voted to forego a public hearing at the beginning of this month and performed a first reading of the zoning change proposal on Jan. 14.
Wenzl spoke out against the zoning change at the legislative meeting on Jan. 14, where he elaborated on the reasoning he gave for the appeal.
“Simply put, the rents are too high,” Wenzl told the commission on Jan. 14.
Wenzl was especially worried about younger professionals, whom he argued wouldn’t have the income to live in one of the building’s apartments. By his calculations someone would need to be making at least $46,000 to reasonably afford an apartment on the lowest rung from the proposed rent scale.
“We’ve got a lot of folks doing important work in Covington who don’t make anywhere near $46,000… ,” Wenzl said. “There’s a lot of folks in that $26,000 to $36,000 annual salary range who can’t afford to live in this project, and the tendency has been to approve a lot of similar projects.”
Wenzl attended the meeting Tuesday night but did not speak.
Wenzl’s comments are in contrast to reasoning given by elected officials and professionals, including the planning staff with the county and Orleans Development Founder Tony Kreutzjans, about the complex’s purported affordability. They cited a housing study released in 2023 from the Northern Kentucky Development District, which suggested a supply deficit in smaller rental properties at all income levels, arguing the building would serve as a way of filling the gap.
At the same time, about 62% of the residents in the census tract in which the development will occur are listed as rent-burdened as of 2022, according to the American Community Survey, an initiative from the U.S. Census Bureau that makes statistical estimations from census data.
A study of housing in Northern Kentucky has revealed troubling trends for housing in the region, with the largest need being for “workforce housing” for households earning between $15 and $25 per hour, with monthly housing costs between $500 and $1,500. The region needs about 3,000 more housing units to provide for people within that income range, according to the study. The demand for one- to two-bedroom rentals and owned properties consistently exceeds their supply, while supply for three and four-bedroom properties consistently exceeds demand. The study suggests that the region needs to build 6,650 housing units to support economic development in the next five years, which equates to 1,330 units per year. Read more here.
Understanding NKY’s housing shortage
Rental households must spend 30% or more of their income on rent (not including utilities, insurance and other housing expenses) in order to be considered rent-burdened. A tenant living in the complex making $52,900 or less would be rent-burdened if they’re paying the complex’s median rent of $1,322.50 a month.
About 45% of all Covington renters are rent-burdened, according to the American Community Survey. The median household income in Covington was $53,770 as of 2022.
Kreutzjans stated earlier this month he hoped to get the building onto the National Register of Historic Places and that his company plans to use historic tax credits to help fund the conversion. The 130-year-old building was originally part of an old cordage manufacturer before later becoming a warehouse.
Read the development plan for the building below.