WEST CHESTER TWP. — There's no slowdown in sight for the rush to develop southeastern Butler county.

        Economic downturn or not, the bulldozers, cranes and pavers keep rolling in a development frenzy.

        At least a dozen subdivisions in Liberty Township and six in West Chester are under way. Fairfield Township, another hotbed of growth, will see 550 new homes this year as a few subdivisions wrap up construction.

        Over the next five years, 6,000 new homes are expected to rise in southeastern Butler County — mostly in Liberty Township, according to the Butler County Planning and Zoning Department.

Click for full image of map. (M. Royer art) | ZOOM |

        With the influx of residents — many of whom are big earners — come the developers and businesses. New shopping centers, big-box stores and commercial and business complexes are sprouting in the remaining space as a slice of the Tristate gets gobbled up at a stunning rate.

        There appears to be no stopping the rush to an area some local officials dubbed “the Gold Coast” because of its lucrative potential. And that worries people concerned about disappearing country lifestyles and mounting congestion and environmental stress.

        “It's a sprawl time bomb waiting to go off,” said Glen Brand, spokesman for the Sierra Club's Cincinnati office, which considers Butler and Warren counties the worst sprawl areas in the Tristate.

        Southeastern Butler County, with good highway links and strategic location, is flourishing as downtown Cincinnati struggles to retain anchor stores and against a boycott called in the aftermath of last year's race riots.

        Meanwhile, government leaders, developers and merchants here are brimming with pride, saying the area is fortunate to have visionaries pushing it to a well-planned economic development mecca.

        “We are a lifestyle community. West Chester is outstanding among its contemporaries and meticulous,” said West Chester Township Administrator Dave Gully. “All of our problems are the fault of the last person who moved here.”

        Said Joe Hinson, president and chief executive officer of the Southeastern Butler County Chamber of Commerce: “Within the next five years, I don't think any area in southwestern Ohio will have witnessed what we will be undertaking.”

A new hub
               Sparkling new office buildings and upscale chain restaurants line Union Centre Boulevard, West Chester's new commercial kingdom that has become a hub between Cincinnati and Dayton.

        It emerged quickly in 1998 after the first new Interstate-75 interchange in 20 years was built there. So far, only about 20 percent of the available land there has been developed.

        “So many people have moved out here because they get more house for their money and better schools. Then the businesses follow,” said Chris Nachtrab, the property manager of CMC Properties, which operates two office centers off Ohio 747 near Beckett Road.

        “Without exception, all the business owners in our buildings live in the area,” he said. “They would rather have a five-minute drive into work than a 30-minute one going downtown.”

        As West Chester began filling up about seven years ago, the focus moved north to Liberty Township, whose population rocketed 146 percent between 1990 to 2000.

        Liberty now has about 25,000 residents while West Chester holds about 55,000.

        A shopping mall war is raging in West Chester, where developers are trying to lure upscale retail to four separate centers. No one has publicly confirmed signing any tenants but one open-air mall, The Avenue of West Chester, recently had its zoning approved and is about to begin construction.

        Another development has cleared 75 acres at the northwest corner of Cincinnati Dayton Road and Interstate-75. Neyer Properties, Inc., one of the largest real estate developers in Cincinnati, wants to build Market Square, an upscale entertainment, shopping and business complex.

        But as green spaces evaporate into a sea of concrete and blacktop, some residents are crying out, clinging to Southwestern Ohio's rural flavor that attracted them.

        “Everything is so ugly now,” said Jennifer Willis, 39, who moved to West Chester from Boston 11 years ago with her husband. “We are becoming huge blobs that take up so much space and make empty holes in areas like the city of Cincinnati, which could really use revitalization,” she said. “We are losing our sense of place. You could be anywhere. It doesn't feel like Ohio anymore.”

Residents fight back
               In Liberty Township, residents have been trying to curb growth west of Cincinnati-Dayton Road.

        Leading the charge is resident Robert Hoffman and at least eight other neighbors who moved to the area years ago for its tree-lined country roads and open farmland. And they want it to stay that way.

        But two developers see the intersection of Ohio 747 and Princeton Road as a prime crossroads for new stores since the Michael A. Fox Highway interchange is just south of it.

        Mark Sennet wants to put a United Dairy Farmers store on 10 acres at the northeast corner with a car wash, fast-food restaurant, office building and strip center. A second developer, Carlos Todd of The Todd Group, envisions a two-story strip center for 14 stores on three acres at the southwest corner.

        Last year, township trustees approved the zoning changes for the developments to move forward. Property owners at the intersection agreed to sell. It looked like a done deal until the residents launched petition drives to hold a referendum to overturn the vote. They obtained enough signatures to qualify for a referendum on the May 7 primary ballot, and voters now will decide the issue.

        A similar effort last fall from most of the same residents was successful in halting commercial development on a parcel off Yankee Road near the Fox Highway.

        The neighbors don't want a car wash or a business open nearly 24 hours emerging nearby. Similar establishments already are two miles away on Cincinnati-Dayton Road near the Fox Highway, they point out.

        “Everybody drives by them when they come home from work,” Mr. Hoffman, 56, said. “We don't want one on every corner.”

        If there must be development, the residents say they would prefer five-day-a-week businesses with eight-hour days such as banks and day cares.

        “We moved out here from Colerain Township,” said Trisha Slattery, 37. “Part of the appeal was there wasn't gas stations and convenience stores on every corner. Just because we have an intersection doesn't mean we need to build on it.”

        Mr. Todd and Mr. Sennet are longtime West Chester residents who see themselves as helping guide upscale development that will benefit the community.

        The developers would be required to pay for widening the two-lane Princeton Road. The widening would allow for left turns onto Ohio 747 and into the proposed small business developments. Signal improvements also are stipulated.

        It is clear the road improvements are needed. The intersection has become a bottleneck as the area booms. Two schools being built nearby are sure to worsen the congestion.

        But the residents say they don't want “Band-aids” such as turn lanes and signals. They want full-blown improvements with the roads being widened to four lanes.

        Meanwhile, landowners at the intersection say many of those who now complain about sprawl helped bring it here. They think their right to sell their property has been lost in the residents' fight for open space.

        Calvin Price and Naomi Ormes used to gaze out their living room windows at the sunset. Now both have views of a 160-foot-high water tower that sits just west of their homes, which are surrounded by new subdivisions and zooming cars.

        “When we moved here, we would like to have closed the door behind us and have things stay the same but that doesn't happen,” said Mrs. Ormes, 59. “They didn't ask us if they could come here and live so we shouldn't have to ask their permission to sell our property and leave.”

        “I hope that we are able to sell our property and maybe then we could afford to move to an area where we can once again acquire some green space,” said Mr. Price, 50. “These people say these commercial developments are going to create urban sprawl but it's already here. They brought it.”

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