DEERFIELD TWP. — Developers have gotten a green light to build Warren County's answer to the West Chester mall wars: Deerfield Towne Center, an upscale, open-air shopping center that they say is almost two-thirds leased.

        “We have an opportunity to bring the best of the best retailers to this area,” said Jeff Anderson, who also developed the successful Rookwood Commons in Norwood.

        The Deerfield Township Zoning Commission voted 3-1 late Monday to approve the rezoning and site plan application for Deerfield Towne Center, planned on 45 acres along Mason-Montgomery Road, north of Fields Ertel Road. The request goes to Deerfield Township trustees on Sept. 10 for final approval, but it would take a unanimous vote to overturn the zoning commission's decision.

        Mr. Anderson and Casto Realty President Greg Malone are developing the $45 million, 432,000-square-foot center on land owned by Indianapolis-based Duke Realty. Possible tenants include California Pizza Kitchen and Buca di Beppo, Mr. Malone said. He also hopes to anchor the center with a book/music retailer, a gourmet grocery, a bed and bath store and a sports retailer. It also would have smaller, high-end specialty stores, in contrast to nearby shopping centers.

        Deerfield Towne Center would be the first of its kind in Warren County, which currently has one aging mall — Towne Mall in Middletown — and one planned mall in Monroe. However, it could be in a race with several similar developments along Interstate 75 in West Chester to land the choicest stores and restaurants.

        Developers hope to break ground by the end of this year and open by Christmas 2003 or spring 2004. The township has not yet decided whether to support a $4 million tax-increment financing deal to help pay for the project, Administrator Greg Horwedel said.

        Residents' opposition to the development has been muted, especially compared to that generated by plans nearly two years ago for a 1 million-square-foot enclosed mall that was to include a Nordstrom.

        Neighbors, however, remain concerned about increased traffic congestion and stormwater problems.

        “It's a recurring theme with developments ... that there doesn't seem to be a commitment to the infrastructure to support them,” resident David Oriskovich said. “It is impossible to live here any more because of traffic.”

        Mary Hoot has lived off of Irwin-Simpson Road, near the site of the planned center, for 17 years.

        “I love to shop. But trading my sanity for a day at the mall, getting stuck in the traffic from this mall, it's just not worth it,” Mrs. Hoot said. “We knew (the area) was going to change, but we didn't expect that it would be a runaway expansion.”

        Township planning officials supported the developers' application, saying all but five acres was already zoned to allow a traditional strip mall while the new request includes a higher-quality design and more landscaping.

        “This plan is so far superior I think it's a no-brainer that we should go with it,” agreed Ken Natorp, a local landowner and nursery operator.

        The new “lifestyle center” will be similar to Rookwood Commons, Mr. Malone said, but it will have a greater emphasis on pedestrian paths lined with greenery. Overall, the site will be 17.5 percent green space, he said — far above the required 10 percent.

        Developers' plans also call for Irwin-Simpson Road to be moved just north of the center and for Wilkens Boulevard to be extended north to form the center's west boundary.

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