DEERFIELD TWP. — Township trustees have cleared the way for a major shopping center to be built on Mason-Montgomery Road.

        Trustees voted 2-0 Tuesday to approve rezoning for Deerfield Towne Center, a $45 million, 45-acre “lifestyle center.” It could break ground this year and open as soon as late 2003, according to Jeff Anderson, who is developing it with Casto Realty.

        Several residents spoke against the project, saying they fear it will increase traffic and storm-water problems in the area.

        “It sounds like a nice place, but you've got to get people there, and (Mason-Montgomery) is jammed,” neighbor Greg Autore said.

        Still, Trustee Randy Kuvin said Wednesday: “Under the existing zoning, it could have been a strip center that would have provided far less tax revenues but still created a similar traffic impact.”

        Lifestyle centers — upscale, open-air shopping areas such as Mr. Anderson's Rookwood Commons in Norwood — are the rage in retail development.

        “We're trying to create a theme everyone wants to go back to — a downtown Main Street feel,” said Greg Malone of Casto Realty, another developer of the Deerfield center.

        The project comes as several similar centers are planned in West Chester Township. There also has been talk of possible enclosed malls in Monroe and, most recently, Mason.

        “It adds one more point of confusion between all the centers that are planned on the (Interstate) 75 and 71 corridors,” Mr. Anderson said Tuesday. “It's important to go faster” on Deerfield Towne Center because of that. Construction can begin when 60 percent of the space is leased, he said — a target that's not far off.

        Deerfield Towne Center has made progress on another front as well: Township trustees recently agreed informally to a $9.5 million tax-increment financing deal for road improvements to Mason-Montgomery, Wilkens Boulevard and Irwin-Simpson Road. The improvements were sought by the center developers as well as Terra Firma and Cincinnati United Contractors, which are developing a more traditional shopping center at Socialville-Foster and Mason-Montgomery.

        TIFs allow tax revenue generated by a development to be set aside for a certain number of years, to be used to pay for infrastructure improvements.

        In other business Tuesday, township trustees also approved rezoning for the 27 acres behind township offices on Townsley Drive. Several acres of the township-owned site are to be used for a 48-unit apartment building for senior citizens. Construction likely will begin in the spring and be complete by spring 2004, project architect Rick Pansiera said.

        The project was delayed when residents of the nearby Woodfield of Landen subdivision objected to it. However, many of them dropped their opposition after the township promised to preserve most of the remaining land as green space.

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