Residents nationwide are transforming their communities thanks to Cincinnati urban planners 

Residents are increasingly taking charge of their neighborhoods. One example involves the conversion of an old chemical plant in West Louisville, Kentucky into affordable housing. Another is in Carmel, Indiana where neighborhood ambassadors are helping residents articulate a vision for the future. Cincinnati’s Yard & Co. is behind those efforts and more. The Neighborhood Playbook, written by Yard & Co., is almost a decade old, but the concepts are still resonating nationwide with citizen developers. 

People don’t want development to happen to them. They want to be part of it 

Cincinnati’s Joe Nickol and his Yard & Co. partner Kevin Wright quickly realized the “Go big or go home” mentality wasn’t the only path to growth and development. Instead, incrementalism could be a faster more inclusive way of accomplishing things.  

Before starting Yard & Co., a full-service urban growth firm, they got a grant to write a field guide for community members and developers who want to “activate vacant spaces.” It’s a foldout pamphlet people can write and sketch in as they walk around their neighborhoods dreaming about more parks, restaurants, housing and more.  

The Neighborhood Playbook was published in 2016, has sold thousands of copies and been widely publicized over the years, including in this article from Strong Towns. According to Nickol, “It’s meant to be carried around, used, abused, dog eared, written in, ripped apart. And we even sized it such that it can fit in your back pocket or your handbag.” 

So you want to change your neighborhood? 

Nickol explained, “Folks around the country who had bought the book were wanting to do workshops about it. “So, we started traveling around and then very quickly people started saying how can we work with you?” 

That’s when Cincinnati-based Yard & Co. was born. The company grew year over year and now has done projects in more than 20 states and has an office in Oklahoma. 

In the Brick by Brick podcast Nickol highlighted two of the efforts his company is involved in. 

West Louisville, Kentucky 

For a generation or two the segregated neighborhood of West Louisville was overlooked. The barbershop, the grocery store, and other elements of Main Street had been wiped out. Yard & Co. set out to “return the local vibrancy and the local culture around a local economy.” 

Its client RE:Land won the right to redevelop the Rhodia chemical plant in West Louisville. 

It had been vacant for more than 30 years. The City of Louisville acquired the 17-acre site and in 2023 began to clean up half of it. RE:Land plans to build 233 affordable housing units and convert it into a “Black-led mixed-use district that grows local wealth, culture, and day-to-day convenience inside a 66-acre framework.” (starting from the initial 17-acre site) 

Nickol says state funding has been secured for Phase 1 development. Construction could start before the end of 2025. 

Carmel, Indiana 

In 2018 an unincorporated community in suburban Indianapolis called Home Place was annexed by the City of Carmel. Nickol says the annexation was toxic. “People did not want to become part of Carmel. Carmel was hellbent on making this part of the community for a lot of good reasons and maybe reasons that the local community didn’t trust.”  

Then bad things began happening. Their school closed. Some of their businesses closed. Nickol says they started getting new streets built to Carmel standards, not their historic standards. They became concerned about the future of their community. Yard & Co. was hired to “create a new vision for Home Place that more sensitively incorporated it into the future of Carmel.” 

Yard & Co. hired a group of ambassadors from the neighborhood to be the face of the project. In May 2025 they hosted a Block Party and created a pocket park, getting input from the residents. 

The neighborhood now has a plan to move forward which is being approved by the Planning Commission. 

 Yard & Co.’s website explains the vision for Home Place: 

“To effectively tell the Home Place story, a place identity was created to depict the vision and values of the community. The brandmarks help convey key characteristics, including stewardship, vibrancy, growth, creativity, and togetherness. The community plan describes ways this identity can begin to be experienced throughout the business district as wayfinding signage, branded benches, flower pots, and even on community members with new apparel and merchandise. The brand also ties the new 106th & College organization to the place they are helping to enhance.” 

Looking ahead 

According to William Towns, adjunct professor of sustainability and social impact at the Kellogg School of Management, Community Revitalization Is Hard to Get Right. Here’s How It Can Succeed,” He says, ”Ultimately, the people who live in the neighborhood are the ones who decide which amenities and services they are interested in and the kinds of business they will support. Without the support of the community, businesses or housing development will fail.” 

Towns goes on to say, “I often tell community groups, ‘If you’re saying these are the amenities you want, then it is imperative that you support them….In an established neighborhood, a storefront may change every six months as demand for retail space is strong. But in disinvested neighborhoods, when a store closes, it could be ten years before another business comes back.” 

This, in turn, reinforces Towns’ original point about investors doing their homework to ensure that they build amenities that the community wants to support. Getting this part wrong can torpedo the entire revitalization effort. 

 What do you think about Yard & Co.’s approach to revitalizing neighborhoods? We want to build community around context and solutions in our cities. Your feedback is very important to the effort, as we continue to dig deeper into the responses to some of our most pressing social issues, including the housing crisis. Click on the green button below to take a short survey to help reinforce and refine our work. Thank you.         

Ann Thompson – Host, Producer

Over the last thirty years in Cincinnati, Ann Thompson has brought a wealth of knowledge and expertise to her reporting. She has reported and anchored for WVXU, WKRC, WCKY, WHIO-TV and Metro Networks and freelanced for NPR, CBS and ABC Radio. Her work has been recognized by the Associated Press and she has won awards from the Association of Women in Communications and the Alliance for Women in Media. She is a former News Director and Operations Manager. Ann has reported from India, Japan, South Korea, Germany and Belgium as part of fellowships. Ann thinks of the Brick by Brick project as “journalism for good.” She serves as host and producer. Ann lives in Anderson Township with her husband Scott. They have two boys. Jake graduated from the Air Force Academy in 2022 and Kurt attends West Point.