LIBERTY TOWNSHIP — The success last month of a referendum to curb commercial growth off Yankee Road next to the Michael A. Fox Highway (Ohio 129) has spurred another residents' group to launch a petition drive opposing business developments at Princeton Road and Ohio 747.

        Township officials claim a successful referendum would adversely affect Ohio 747 traffic for years.

        Stipulations in approved changes to zoning at two corners of the Ohio 747 and Princeton Road intersection require two developers to pay for widening Princeton Road. The widening would allow for left turns onto Ohio 747 and into the proposed small business developments. Signal improvements also are required.

        “The Butler County engineer has no money to purchase Princeton Road right of way at this corner (north of the Fox Highway) and this allows us to have it done by these developers ... at no cost to the county,” said Liberty Township Administrator Nell Kilpatrick.

        But Robert Hoffman, who lives just south of the intersection and next to one of the proposed commercial sites, said an organized group began a petition drive Monday to place the zoning changes before the voters on the spring primary ballot. They need 475-500 signatures — 8 percent of the township's registered voters in the last gubernatorial election — to be successful.

        Township zoning commission recommendations to turn both sites into planned business developments from residential zoning were unanimously approved by township trustees Oct. 29.

        The intersection of the two-lane roads has become a growing bottleneck as traffic from the Fox Highway (Ohio 129) increases and Liberty Township development booms.

        Now, The Todd Group wants to build a strip shopping center on roughly three acres at the southwest corner of the crossroads. The center would contain businesses such as a bank, card shop, florist and dry cleaner.

        Another developer, Mark Sennett, proposes a United Dairy Farmers store with gasoline pumps as the first phase of a business development at the northeast corner of the intersection. Additional phases would fill that 10-acre site with a fast food restaurant, an office building and strip shopping center.

        A small business hub at the crossroads is consistent with county and township master plans, Mrs. Kilpatrick said.

        Mr. Hoffman said many homeowners in surrounding developments are opposed to the zone changes and business plans for the intersection. They say additional traffic will be drawn onto Ohio 747 and the state has no plans to widen that road for six to eight years.

        “This will not be a full-blown intersection improvement so that is not enough,” Mr. Hoffman said. The improvements are to Princeton Road and not the state route.

        Mr. Hoffman said opponents want to see further restrictions on the types of business and hours they operate. “I could see a day-care center, but that's about it. ... All of the other (types of stores) are within two miles. Why do we need more?”

        Neighbors also raise concerns about the gasoline pumps, a car wash and lighting and the general concept of a strip center, Mr. Hoffman said. Such development also would change the environmental attractiveness of surrounding residential subdivisions.

        Efforts to rezone two parcels between Yankee Road and the Fox Highway were defeated by referendum — 58 percent to 42 percent — in the Nov. 6 election.

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