BY SUSAN VELA
The Cincinnati Enquirer
UNION - Under the terms of the present Union Town Plan, Rick Newman feels caged in.
The document that is supposed to guide development in this small, rural community would have allowed him to have a wooden fence, but not barbed wire. He says that would have kept him from having pigs on the property. He now has horses and cattle. .
On Wednesday night, after months of protest, county plan commissioners acknowledged that they've heard the concerns raised by Mr. Newman and many other residents.
They refused to act on the present town plan, sending county planners back to the drawing board. This time, planners promise to seek more input from developers, business owners and property owners. "Well, they probably should have the first time around," said Doreen Spach, another critic. "We want some input."
Union city officials asked county planners to come up with a town plan after they learned that the state highway department intended to construct a five-lane U.S. 42 bypass by 2002. The $15.5 million project will cut through 1,300 acres of agricultural property east of Union's business district.
But, at public hearings in the past two months, most people have criticized the plan that was drawn up to guide the region's development. There has been support for the overall concept: commercial and retail development in a town center, and clusters of residential development. However, architectural requirements, the process for preserving green space and questions about residential areas have been stumbling blocks.
"Quite honestly . . . while (the plan) looks nice on paper, it's extremely restrictive, possibly too much," said Mayor Warren Moore. He noted that, in some instances, the plan requires 600-foot setbacks and only one house on every five acres.
"It makes it extremely difficult for a developer today to do anything," Mayor Moore said. "There ought to be some sort of middle ground that most people will agree to."
Jim O'Daniel hopes so. The president of Florence Nursery has an option on nine acres in Union. The property will be on the north end of the new U.S. 42 bypass.
He is thinking about moving his business there. But, under the terms of the present town plan, he would have to make sure that 50 percent of the acreage remains green space.
That would restrict him from developing the property to its full potential, he said.
"So much green space is required," he said.
Mr. O'Daniel thinks the present plan is proposing an area that is the opposite extreme of U.S. 42 in Florence, which he said has become "wall-to-wall pavement" because of the number of businesses lining it.
With the Union Town Plan, "the pendulum has gone the other way," he said. "It needs to go back to the middle. There are some parts of the plan that deserve scrutiny and looking at."
The five-member Long Range Planning Committee of the Boone County Planning Commission will meet Dec. 9 to discuss the process for revamping the town plan.
