Thursday, February 04, 1999
West Side development plan OK'd
'Low-growth' advocates vow fight
BY RACHEL MELCER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
GREEN TOWNSHIP — With a few small changes and a nod to opposition groups, a county steering committee Wednesday approved a plan to develop western Hamilton County.
Led by Green Township Trustee Bill Seitz, the committee toned down language supporting a bridge from Miami Township to Boone County, Ky. Instead, the plan calls for a study to examine the issue.
And the revised plan urges county commissioners to devise ways to make sewer and water line extensions less costly for homeowners.
But the plan, which was unanimously approved, does favor extending utility lines into the largely rural region. That will all but assure continued housing, commercial and industrial development.
Opponents said they felt betrayed by the committee's failure to reconsider a “low-growth” plan that would have limited development in the area that includes the townships of Colerain, Green, Crosby, Whitewater, Miami and Harrison; the villages of North Bend, Addyston and Cleves; and the city of Harrison.
“Tonight's action is but a tiny step in the right direction. Clearly they feel the heat,” said Tim Mara, an attorney working with Concerned Citizens of Western Hamilton County (CCWHC).
“They refused to back off this plan for maximum growth,” he said, calling the changes “a smoke screen.”
CCWHC members said they will continue to oppose the plan through each stage of the process.
Backed by the national Sierra Club, they are urging county and local officials to reconsider the low-growth plan that the steering committee dismissed during its three-year, $300,000 planning proc ess.
That option included efforts to preserve green space and farmland, restrict rampant development and maintain the region's rural character.
“We think we've made some extremely sensible, reasonable suggestions for them. We are serious about (our officials) considering them,” said Clare Johnson, a leading member of CCWHC.
But members of the steering committee said they cannot prevent developers from buying land in the region. Nor can they stop farmers and other landowners from selling it.
They said the approved plan will control infrastructure costs and preserve limited green space and farmland.
And it will spur the creation of jobs and attract taxpaying businesses and industry to the region, they said.
The plan will also foster higher-density housing development.
Supporters say they want taxpayers currently moving out of Cincinnati and into Butler, Warren and Clermont counties to have more housing options within Hamilton County.
People on both sides of the debate said they want to control urban sprawl — but they have drastically different ideas of how to do it.
Opponents of the proposed regional plan said improved roads and extended water and sewer lines would bring strip malls and suburbia into the undeveloped, rural areas.
They said it would bring an end to their pastoral way of life.
But steering committee members said such things are coming anyway — and that this plan will keep them in check.
Zoning and land-use plans can be modified to require developers to include trees, retention ponds and other aesthetic improvements.
And infrastructure can be used to ensure compact, contiguous growth.
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