Transportation planners Friday offered a gentle reminder to Cincinnati's riverfront planners: Don't forget about us.

With the Reds and Bengals stadiums, a new museum, a park, scads of parking garages, restaurants and shops being planned for the riverfront, slightly widening any one of them can squeeze out or take away from another venue.

As Hamilton County Commissioner John Dowlin puts it: The city and county are trying to put two pounds in a one-pound sack.

And as decisions are made in the coming months on how the riverfront will ultimately look, Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI) planners want to make sure buses and light rail aren't squeezed out.

"A transit system is a critical component of whether this is successful," OKI Executive director Jim Duane told the city-county Riverfront Steering Committee.

Mr. Duane said they haven't felt slighted and communication has gone well. But he wants to make sure it stays that way, especially with plans for light rail that would move people in and out of the riverfront area. Construction on the region's first 16 miles of light rail planned from Covington to Blue Ash could start as soon as fall 2002 and open fall 2004.

There are also plans to look at putting electric-powered light-rail or diesel-powered commuter rail running east to Milford, west to Lawrenceburg, south toward Northern Kentucky University and along the Interstate 75 corridor.

Eventually, the lines could come together at a downtown transit center at the new Second Street. It's being designed for cars, buses and possible light rail.

"Do not limit our ability for the future," Mr. Duane said Friday.

Riverfront Steering Committee members said transportation needs to be done with the right mix of attractions.

"There's no question transportation is a critical component," said Hamilton County Commission President Tom Neyer Jr. "But all of these will succeed to the extent that they complement one another."

Copyright 1999 The Cincinnati Enquirer