Taming The Pike: How one town wants to turn a busy roadway into a village square

Cincinnati’s first-ring suburbs face unique challenges. Changing demographics, economic stability, and issues regarding resources and security are common threads among these jurisdictions. 

The ways the 49 Hamilton County cities, villages, townships, and municipal corporations not only adjust but thrive is the focus of this series, First Suburbs—Beyond Borders. The series explores the diversity and ingenuity of these longstanding suburban communities, highlighting issues that demand collective thought and action to galvanize their revitalization.

More than 20,000 vehicles a day travel the four-mile stretch of Ohio 4 affectionately known as “The Pike,” Springfield Pike. Many of those speed through the village of Woodlawn on their way to Interstate 75, I-275, or other points beyond. Now the village of 4,000 people is discussing ways to slow that traffic, encourage motorists to stop at local businesses, and turn the high-traffic thoroughfare into something a bit more pedestrian friendly.

The village, along with its neighbor to the south, the city of Wyoming, have participated in a plan to enhance the look of The Pike, and turn it into a gateway to the communities.

“The purpose of the plan is to improve the look of Springfield Pike, make it more walkable, to allow for more alternative forms of transportation,” says Woodlawn Village Manager Tim Engel.

The plan, prepared by Cincinnati-based KZF Design, is preliminary and its execution will depend on community feedback and funding. But its goals reveal the need of small towns such as Wyoming and Woodlawn to turn busy thoroughfares into community assets rather than high-speed pass throughs, improve their safety, support local businesses and promote a small-town atmosphere.

One of the key points of the proposal is to slim down the four-lane roadway. A so-called “road diet” would reduce four lanes to three, including a center turn lane. A slimmer, slower Springfield Pike would mean pedestrians have shorter distances to cross the street, motorists would have an easier time making left turns out of businesses, and drivers would be forced to drive at slower speeds, perhaps even honoring the posted speed limit.

The road diet has already been completed in the two-mile portion of The Pike in Wyoming. Since the project’s completion in 2020, the city has seen a 27% decrease in crashes involving injuries, and a 21% decrease in crashes involving property damage, village officials say.

“It improved traffic flow and reduced collisions,” says Wyoming Mayor Melissa Monich.

Even at rush hour, traffic in Wyoming’s portion of The Pike moves steadily at a Goldilocks pace: not too fast and not too slow. Variable traffic signals keep traffic moving on the main thoroughfare.

But once out of the Wyoming city limits, The Pike opens up into four lanes again in Woodlawn. The road feels more hectic as impatient drivers pass in the right lane, speed from traffic light to traffic light, or get delayed by left turns into businesses.

And that’s what is also on the drawing board as Woodlawn makes long-term plans to transform The Pike into something of a village square.

The draft plan contemplates Springfield Pike between Grove and Riddle Road as an urban, multi-use business district with housing, businesses and greenspace. One concept shows three- or four-story buildings with apartments or condos on the upper floors and retail on the ground floors. A large central lawn would be created next to the fire station, where there’s a fountain built to celebrate the country’s bicentennial 49 years ago.

The Dairy Queen, a presence in Woodlawn for 75 years and so popular that the drive-through queue sometimes stretches into the road, would get a little more room. One-story retail building housing independent, unique businesses would be added to either side of the road.

A few years ago, the pedestrian bridge over the West Fork of the Mill Creek was renovated and reopened after being closed for years. The bridge is a connector that leads from Ohio 4 at the fire station, the lawn and the fountain back to the city pool, ball fields and Harmony Park, a landscaped area with interactive musical playground instruments.

“What we want to do is build multipurpose buildings that have unique stores or restaurants on the bottom, perhaps some condos on the top, and connect that whole area so that eventually there’s an opportunity right in the heart of Woodlawn to access several restaurants, where you’re within walking distance to our pool facility, Harmony Park, the baseball fields, and so on,” Engel says.

The village has also purchased and demolished a handful of dilapidated buildings along the Pike to prepare the properties for new uses.

Realizing the vision is several years down the road and will take funding and will need further community feedback. To engage the community, Woodlawn has agreed to work with Community Heart and Soul, a Vermont-based nonprofit. The organization utilizes a roughly two-year process that is driven by residents describing what they like about their communities and their visions for its future.

Its program is meant to gather input from people who typically wouldn’t attend a committee meeting or a public hearing at city hall.  “Community Heart & Soul evolves around giving voice to everyone in a community, especially those whose voices are often missing at local meetings,” the organization says on its website. “The goal is to meet people where they are,” Engel says. “To capture a lot of the unheard voices, who historically haven’t had that kind of input into their community.”

Finding the money for the plan will take help from grants and other financial assistance. The road diet piece of the puzzle alone has been estimated to cost about $8 million, Engel says. Woodlawn has been actively seeking funding from Hamilton County and other sources.  It recently got word that of a $700,000 grant to repave half of Glendale-Milford Road from Springfield Pike to Wayne Avenue. It is also scheduled to receive a transportation-alternatives grant to pay for new sidewalks on Marion Road. Sidewalks were also built this year along the east side of Springfield Pike. Grants have come from the county, SORTA, and the Ohio Public Works Commission. Financing to buy and tear the dilapidated properties on The Pike came from the county and the Port Authority.

The bottom line: “You’re always continuing to try to improve your municipality, to make it a cool place to live for everybody, make it a great place to raise your family,” Engel says.

First Suburbs—Beyond Borders series is made possible with support from a coalition of stakeholders including the Murray & Agnes Seasongood Good Government Foundation: The Seasongood Foundation is devoted to the cause of good local government; Hamilton County Planning Partnership; plus First Suburbs Consortium of Southwest Ohio, an association of elected and appointed officials representing older suburban communities in Hamilton County, Ohio.