LIBERTY TOWNSHIP - Four months ago, square blue signs along Millikin Road beckoned motorists to a large empty field.

        The signs enticed prospective home buyers: “Lakota Schools . . . wooded home sites . . . swimming pool . . . bike trails . . . ” and other amenities.

        Today, that field isn't so empty. Thirty homes — priced from $180,000 to $330,000 — have been built or are being built in the Hawthorne Hills subdivision. Sales have been so brisk that the developer, Dixon Builders, plans to build 30 more before the end of this year. In four years, 325 houses will stand on half-acre and quarter-acre lots.

Jim Allison, a Mason farm owner, still has his favorite fishing site. But now it's surrounded by new subdivisions. (Michael Snyder photo) | ZOOM |

        It's more evidence of the transformation of this once-rural township into one of the hottest of Greater Cincinnati's residential development hot spots. And experts see no end anytime soon.

        The impact of this growth on communities will be profound. The rural or semi-rural ambience in many of these communities will give way to the more noisy, fast-paced world of suburbia.

        The large influx of new residents will place greater demands on police and fire departments and other public services and on roads, water and sewer systems and schools

        Warren and Butler topped the eight-county metropolitan area in the number of residential building permits issued in 2001. Warren had 2,616, and Butler, 1,856.

        The newest 2000 Census figures also show Warren County leading the area in median housing value, at $142,200. Butler County is third - behind Boone County - at $123,200.

        “With their proximity to the I-75 and I-71 corridors, Butler and Warren counties have just been growing,” said Steve O'Callaghan, vice president of Dixon Builders.

        Development will blossom in other parts of Butler County as well in the next five years. Fairfield Township, southern Ross Township, the Millville area, and the west sides of Trenton, Monroe and Hamilton all are ripe for residential development, officials say.

        In Warren County, subdivisions will proliferate in such places as the Maineville and Hopkinsville areas in Hamilton Township, Mason, the Hunter area of Franklin Township, Lebanon, Springboro, Clearcreek Township and Franklin.

        Even South Lebanon, which has lagged behind other areas of the county, might wind up a winner in a few years.

        Sprawl will reach in other directions from Cincinnati, too, officials say. To the east, developers are targeting the Ohio 28 corridor in Clermont County's Goshen Township; in Hamilton County, the northwestern portion of Colerain Township, the Harrison Avenue corridor in Green Township and the northeastern part of Crosby Township; and in Indiana's Dearborn County, the Lawrenceburg area, Hidden Valley and St. Leon.

        In Northern Kentucky, some of the hottest areas over the next five years will be: Richwood, Union, Walton, Independence, the Taylor Mill-Independence area, Alexandria, Hebron and Wilder.

        Ronda Tanner, who lives on Yankee Road in central Liberty Township, knows full well what it's like to live in a rural area that's quickly turning suburban.

        When she and her husband, Dewain Blair, bought their house and 10 acres, they could stand in the back yard and see nothing but fields and trees.

        Now they have a small subdivision next to them, with larger subdivisions going up in their general area.

        “They're all over the place,” Ms. Tanner said. “It's inevitable, but I wish it could stay somewhat country. They should limit it so that it's not all subdivisions everywhere you look.”

        West Chester Township used to be the fastest-developing area in Butler. But with open land becoming more scarce there, the push for residential development has moved north into Liberty Township. The 2-year-old Michael A. Fox Highway, which made Liberty more accessible to I-75, also has made the central part of the township more attractive to home buyers.

        Liberty led all Butler communities in building permits for single-family homes in 2001, with 385.

        Lonnie Lisle, another resident of central Liberty, lives across the street from where the Hawthorne Hills subdivision is being built.

        “I'm kind of laid-back about it,” said Mr. Lisle, 47. “Everyone has to have a place to live. It's better than having an airport next door.”

        Fairfield Township's rapid pace of residential growth also will continue over the next few years, said Mike Juengling, Butler County development director.

        Southern Ross Township and the Millville area are expected to grow over the next few years because of recent sewage treatment projects.

        “You won't see the whole township fill up the way West Chester has,” Mr. Juengling said. “The sewage treatment plant is smaller there. So you will see residential development concentrated in a smaller area.”

        Monroe, located along I-75, benefits from being situated halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton.

        “We have a lot of families where one spouse works in Cincinnati and the other works in Dayton,” City Manager Donald Whitman said.

        Lifelong Monroe resident Don Pelfrey embraces the growth in his community. But he said that too many of the new or planned housing developments in Monroe are at the lower end of the pricing spectrum.

        “There's nothing wrong with lower-priced housing, Mr. Pelfrey said. “But we need more middle- and upper-priced housing. There needs to be a healthier mix.”

        In Warren County, Deerfield Township was the perennial leader in residential building permits for many years.

        But in recent years, housing construction has slowed a little in Deerfield Township and has begun exploding toward the east in Hamilton Township.

        In addition, the growth from the Dayton area is spreading to such northern Warren County communities as Springboro, Clearcreek Township and Franklin.

        Hamilton Township topped all Warren County communities in building permits for single-family homes in the first 10 months of this year. It had issued 589 permits.

        “Hamilton Township is a logical extension of development up Montgomery Road from Hamilton County,” said Robert Craig, director of planning for the Warren County Regional Planning Commission.

        The center for residential development in Hamilton Township is Hopkinsville, where U.S. 22 (Montgomery Road) and Ohio 48 intersect. Subdivisions are sprouting like wildflowers within a one-mile radius of that intersection.

        A major subdivision is being built on Ohio 48 and Stephens Road, across from a house Mike Hendrix has lived in for 15 years.

        “It's building up like crazy around here,” said Mr. Hendrix, 46. “Traffic gets too congested now. You wait until that subdivision is done. It will be jammed.”

        His friend, Debbie Amelia, a 47-year-old Hamilton Township resident, said she worries that U.S. 22 will become “a Beechmont Avenue with only two lanes.”

        Glen Brand, Midwest regional representative of the Sierra Club based in Cincinnati, shares their concerns about suburban residential growth.

        “Poorly planned sprawling development is running amok in Butler and Warren counties and has been for a long time,” Mr. Brand said. “It continues to destroy green space and farms, increasing traffic and air pollution, crowding schools and driving up taxes. We need smart growth.”

        But Jerry Sievers, president of the Home Builders of Greater Cincinnati and president of Drees Co., said Mr. Brand is grossly distorting the impact of residential growth in Butler and Warren counties.

        The residential development is not destroying the desirable qualities of those areas, he said.

        “A lot of people want to live there,” Mr. Sievers said. “Residential developments aren't nothing but pavement. People landscape their yards and plant trees. They want their own private green space.”

        Development is not gobbling up valuable farm land, he said. This country doesn't need as much farm land as it did 50 years ago, he said, because farming is more efficient and productive.

        Subdivisions are popping up inside Lebanon and just outside the city borders. Many of the newcomers are people who work in Cincinnati's northern suburbs and in the Dayton area, said Marty Kohler, the city's director of planning and development.

        “A lot of the jobs are shifting to the northern suburbs of Cincinnati,” he said. “We're convenient to both Dayton and Cincinnati.”

        Mason, the home of Paramount's Kings Island, has almost doubled its population since 1990 and shows no signs of slowing down.

        Subdivisions are being built throughout the city. But the heaviest concentration of home building has shifted from the southern part of the city to the north and northwest.

        “We still have quite a lot of land available for development,” Mason City Manager Scott Lahrmer said.

        Access to I-71, good city services and the fine reputation of Mason's public schools have helped Mason grow.

        Jim Allison, 65, grew up on a farm along Mason Road. The old white farmhouse, which he now rents, is surrounded by large, plush houses. It looks like a Model T Ford in a parking lot full of new minivans.

        “It amazes me how fast it happened,” said Mr. Allison, who sold 53 acres of the old farm to developers a few years ago. “What has happened in five years I expected to happen in 15.”

        Mr. Allison now lives in a nearby house he built in 1975. He misses some aspects of the vanishing rural lifestyle. But he said he likes the attractive houses that have been built in his area as well as the people who live in them.

        “The only thing that bothers me,” Mr. Allison said, “is when people move in here and don't want anybody else to live here. I tell them, “If I had felt that way, you wouldn't be here.' ”
       

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