Meeting summary:

  • Organizers from Sustainable Cincy and the Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses say that the planned widening of I-75 as part of the Brent Spence Bridge project could cause displacement and harm public health and the environment.
  • Council Member Meeka Owens, chair of the Climate, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee, cancelled the meeting because there were no items on the agenda, according to Deputy Clerk of Council Nicole Crawford.

Documenter’s follow-up question:

  • How can City Council respect the time and respond to the concerns of public commenters who attend meetings that are cancelled?
  • Has there been a statement, study or summary of how many people are at risk of displacement due to the planned Brent Spence Bridge project and I-75 expansion?

The Oct. 21, 2025, Climate, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee meeting was cancelled without public notice. As of the time the meeting was scheduled to start at 10 a.m., neither notice of cancellation nor an agenda had been posted. As of writing, there has still not been a notice of cancellation posted to the meeting calendar.

At the time the meeting was to start, five people had gathered outside the council chambers with intent to make public comments regarding the planned Interstate 75 expansion in the Brent Spence Bridge Project, currently in the design phase.

Nicole Crawford, deputy clerk of City Council, addressed the group in the hallway. She said that Council Member Meeka Owens, chair of the Climate, Environment, and Infrastructure Committee, had cancelled the meeting because there were no items on the agenda. An attendee asked if public comment constituted an agenda item to which Crawford said there is no public comment if there is no meeting. Crawford said that cancellations are typically posted the Friday prior to a meeting. (In my personal experience as a Documenter, I have never seen a cancellation posted that early.)

Organizers from the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for Transit and Sustainable Development (CTSD, also known as Sustainable Cincy) and from the Seven Hills Neighborhood Houses attended and planned to speak.

Terrisenia Denham, an ambassador for the Seven Hills Neighborhood House, said she is concerned about how the highway widening will affect the community and whether it will cause displacement.

“Displacement has been an issue for decades, you know, and that’s one of the things I’m concerned about, coming out of seven years of homelessness,” Denham said. “I was seven years homeless. I am concerned. You have a mass of people already on the street, and most of them are older, like seniors.”

“I think that a lot of folks know about the bridge aspect and what’s going on there. A lot of people don’t know that it’s also an 8-mile-long highway expansion, and even if they do, [they’re] not entirely aware of the impacts that come with that,” Mackenzie Mason, an organizer with CTSB, said.

Mason said that her greatest concern for the expansion is the impact of additional car pollution on public health. “Neighbors that already experience higher health risks being near an interstate are just going to feel those effects exacerbated,” Mason said.

The organizers said they had assembled 10 people, including at least six in person and more online, to make public comment at the cancelled meeting. Upon the meeting’s cancellation, organizers went to Owens’ office to schedule a meeting to discuss the Brent Spence Bridge project. She was not in her office at the time.

Prior to the meeting, CTSB posted talking points for public comment on their website, which instructs commenters to “tell the CEI Committee to demand the Federal Highway Administration/DOT conduct a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the planned I-75 highway expansion through the West End.” The website also cites the city’s 2023 apology for displacing over 25,000 West End residents, most of whom were Black, during the construction of I-75.

Earlier this year, CTSB petitioned the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to deny the project’s Water Quality Certification on the basis of environmental harms, such as threats to native species.

Last week, Owens submitted a presentation (see agenda packet) to the record providing updates on the Brent Spence Bridge project, which includes renderings of the proposed new bridge.

Members of the committee for Climate, Environment, and Infrastructure include:

  • Meeka Owens (chair)
  • Mark Jeffreys (vice chair)
  • Jeff Cramerding (council member)
  • Seth Walsh (council member) 

These notes can be found on documenters.org.

If you believe anything in these notes is inaccurate, please email us at documenters@signalcincinnati.org with “Correction Request” in the subject line.

Find more Documenters’ notes on Cincinnati City Council here.