Saturday, January 16, 1999
Annexation fight heats up
Union gets suit from Florence
BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer Contributor
Almost 350 acres of open pasture land along Longbranch Road doesn't look like the site of a brewing conflict between two Boone County cities.
But the site near U.S. 42 is the subject of an annexation fight between Florence and Union. The latest shot was fired Friday, when Union Mayor Warren Moore received a copy of a lawsuit Florence filed Jan. 8.
Florence is trying to annex the land so three developers — Tom Schreiber of Florence, Miller Developers of Boone County and Fischer Development Co. of Crestview Hills — can build a 990-house subdivision.
“It's obviously a significant development,” Florence City Coordinator Roger Rolfes said. “It would make a very nice addition to the city.”
Union wants to annex the land, too, after a group of homeowners on Longbranch approached city officials, fearing increased traffic and problems with storm water reten tion if the Florence annexation went through.
“It is going to be a major headache for anyone,” Mr. Moore said. “The city of Union neither needs (the land) nor wants it. The whole purpose is to block Florence from building a subdivision that there's no infrastructure to support.”
Larry Sprague, a land development manager with Fischer Development, said the proposal is no different from other subdivisions in Boone County.
“(Union is) trying to annex 4 square miles,” he said. “They want to annex the whole countryside. (Residents') concerns mask the fact that they want no development at all.”
Kevin Costello, executive director of the Boone County Planning Commission, said a zone change committee is reviewing a request by the developers for a zoning change to permit the development.
A hearing had been scheduled for Wednesday, but Mr. Costello said that has been postponed until at least Feb. 17. He said the zone change committee would meet Feb. 4.
The land — now part of un-
incorporated Boone County — is zoned rural suburban estate, which requires lot sizes of at least 40,000 square feet. Kevin Wall, director of zoning services for the Boone County Planning Commission, said developers want to change it to allow a density of 2.85 units per acre (43,560 square feet).
Mr. Sprague said the developers had been talking with Florence officials for several months about their proposal. City councils in both Union and Florence voted Dec. 18 to begin the annexation process — Union around 5 p.m. and Florence about two hours later.
The problem for Florence: Union City Council approved its measure as an emergency, while Florence had to have two readings and could not do the second one until Jan. 2.
“We beat Florence on their first reading by about two hours,” Mr. Moore said. “From our viewpoint, it was an emergency because the city of Union would have to deal with water runoff from that property (and) the excessive traffic being dumped onto U.S. 42 in Union.”
Mr. Sprague said residents in the proposed subdivision would not have to use Longbranch as much as Mr. Moore claims. And Mr. Rolfes said Florence standards on storm water retention and detention and utilities would apply.
Covington attorney Donald Stepner, who lives on Longbranch Road, is taking the case at no cost to Union. Mr. Moore said even if Florence gets to annex the land, he would not regret the fight.
“Florence may win this,” Mr. Moore said. “But it's time zoners pay attention to all the people.”
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