Friday, June 18, 1999
Anti-landslide rules suggested
BY ALLEN HOWARD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
ANDERSON TOWNSHIP — A landslide that caused expensive houses to slip off their foundations in Lawyer's Pointe might not have occurred had the county's improved regulations on hillside development been in effect.
If so, the project may never have been built.
A hillside regulation task force gave its report to board of trustee members Thursday night, recommending that Hamilton County's Earthworks Improvements regulations be adopted. They said they were convinced they would prevent future problems such as the Lawyer's Pointe landslide of May 1996.
“I can't say definitely if Lawyer's Pointe would not have been built, but I will say it would have been built differently,” said Robert ""Jay'' Buchert, a member of the task force and a member of the Regional Zoning Commission.
The landslide in Lawyer's Pointe caused houses with average values of $350,000 to slip off their foundations.
To correct the slippage, the township received $1 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). FEMA has requested that the township adopt hillside regulations that would prevent such slippage on future hillside developments.
“An important part of the county's regulations is that the county geotechnical engineer will be involved before design plans are drawn,” Mr. Buchert said.
He said the county's geotechnical engineer, Mohammad Islam, will visit proposed sites and examine the layout, soil texture, drainage and possible slippage.
“This could mean moving the development further away from a creek or rerouting a street away from a potential slippage area,” Mr. Buchert said.
James Hassan, a member of the task force and a fierce critic of previously proposed hillside regulations for the township, said he thinks the county regulations are suitable.
“This is great because it sets new standards for the township,” Mr. Hassan said.
Township trustees voted to accept the task force report, but said they needed more time before adopting the regulations.
The task force was appointed in November, after regulations drafted by the department of development services were rejected by the zoning commission and the board of trustees. Residents, developers and landowners said they were too restrictive.
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