BY AMY HIGGINS
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION TOWNSHIP -- Homeowners of the posh Wetherington planned development in West Chester watch cars zoom through their neighborhood, shattering the stillness for which some paid up to $1 million.
A proposed plan to close those streets to the public may restore their serenity -- but maybe at the cost of other traffic problems. The Union Township Department of Zoning and Planning could consider a plan at 6:30 p.m. today to "privatize" the Wetherington streets. Privatizing means gates can be erected to keep out the nearly 12,000 pass-throughs and speedsters.
The road already is privately maintained, as the developer anticipated making the streets private and has never turned them over to the township.
Residents claim too many of the 12,000 cars are using Eagles Wing and Wetherington drives as a shortcut between Tylersville and Cincinnati-Dayton roads. The traffic count on the opening day of the Butler Regional Highway in 2000 is projected to be 8,000 cars.
"Getting in and out at rush hour is unbelievable," said Sandy Moody, who lives on Wetherington Drive. "We need it and want it -- and all of us are willing to pay for it."
Homes in Wetherington, started in 1991 by Great Traditions Land & Development Co., range from $275,000 to $1.5 million.
It took less than two years for commuters from other neighborhoods to realize its streets -- never meant to be a shortcut -- offered a way to get to Interstate 75, bypassing the harried intersection of Tylersville and Cincinnati-Dayton roads.
"We never designed Wetherington Drive to be a primary thoroughfare," said Jim Sullivan, vice president and treasurer of Great Traditions. "It's a secondary road for the community, and it's become a primary thoroughfare to the highway. Wetherington was never designed to have the traffic flow that exists right now."
But neither was the Cincinnati-Dayton and Tylersville intersection, where traffic backs up for miles. Closing Wetherington will force those cars back into the intersection that already is overburdened.
"It's a perfect example that all problems don't have a solution," Union Township Administrator David Gully said. The intersection "can't handle the traffic now. What's it going to be like with 12,000 extra cars?"
