WEST CHESTER TWP. — Approval of a rezoning for a 75-acre mall with a movie theater thrusts to the forefront two questions crucial to shaping the future of this booming township:

        Does West Chester want a second major commercial center to mushroom within a few miles of its bustling Union Centre Boulevard?

        Will enough shoppers come to support so much new commercial development?

        Rezoning for a mall with a movie theater was approved late Monday by the township zoning commission.

        The center, West Chester Market Square, will rise at Cincinnati-Dayton Road and Interstate 75. That's one mile from a similar development, The Streets of West Chester, where a 4,100-seat movie theater began construction last month and is expected to open in May.

        The “mall war” has pitted township and business leaders and developers against one another and divided neighbors in this township of 58,000, where traffic and other impacts of growth are a rising concern. It also will force restaurants, shops and two movie theaters to compete head-to-head.

        “I hope I don't end up ruing the day I made this vote,” Zoning Commission Chairman David Pickard said just before the development was approved in a 3-0 vote. (Two commission members were absent.)

        Some caution that two centers couldn't possibly be successful so close to each other and would doom one of them.

        The proposed 675,800-square-foot “lifestyle center” with a Jeff Ruby steakhouse, Showcase Cinemas and Gaylan's sporting goods store goes before West Chester's three trustees at an Oct. 8 public hearing but it will take a unanimous decision to overturn the zoning commission.

        The trustees are expected to vote on the issue at their Oct. 22 meeting.

        The $100 million center, which will be built by the same developers who did Newport on the Levee, will bring 1,500 to 2,000 jobs. Over the next 30 years, it is expected to generate more than $25 million in revenue for the Lakota school district, more than $50 million in property tax revenues and $60 million in sales tax revenues.

        Mr. Ruby said Tuesday he would cater to the suburban crowd by reducing prices while still offering high-end fare. But he said he will only build there as long as Steiner & Associates of Columbus, who built the Levee, are involved.

        Steiner officials referred comment Tuesday to Neyer Properties Inc., which owns the land Steiner wants to build Market Square on. Officials with National Amusements Inc., which operates Showcase Cinemas, also said it was too soon to comment on the project.

        This summer, the West Chester Township Board of Zoning Appeals denied the project, saying it wasn't compatible with the area, went against the township's vision, and had traffic problems.

        The township's vision shows lifestyle centers should be located in the Union Centre area off I-75.

        Because that bid was rejected, the developers had to take the longer route through the zoning commission.

        But the zoning commission members agreed Monday they couldn't legally turn down the rezoning because the land was zoned for general retail, industrial and office use. Now it has been rezoned to a commercially planned unit.

        “I do not see anything in our plan that suggests the only place a lifestyle center can be placed is at Union Centre,” commission member Scott Phillips said.

        “The market will take care of itself. Both these developments will be successful. I think the township is dying to have facilities like this and both will be adopted. Competition is a good thing and will enhance both these centers.”

        But the market north of Cincinnati can support one mall, not the seven proposed — four in West Chester, two in Warren County and one in Monroe — said Stan Eichelbaum, president of Marketing Developments Inc., an international retail and entertainment research and development planning firm in Cincinnati.

        “North Cincinnati has the potential to be an extraordinary example of irresponsible development,” Mr. Eichelbaum said. “The proof is in the fact that only one major department store (Dillard's at the Monroe mall) has been willing to commit to the market.”

        Residents here are both dreading and anticipating the developments. They say they want more convenient shopping and movie theaters but fear an onslaught of traffic, restaurants and gas stations.

        “(Interstate) 75 will just be backed up worse than it already is,” said Amy Ayers of Mason on Tuesday as she left the Big Lots shopping center off Tylersville Road. “Kohl's (department store) is fine with me. If I want some upscale, I'll travel to go there.”

        Township trustees Tuesday acknowledged tremendous pressure now will be placed on them to overturn the zoning decision from opposing developers and West Chester business leaders, particularly those in the Union Centre area.

        “Maybe this will be a chance for free enterprise to work at its finest,” Trustee Dave Tacosik said.

        Even if the trustees allow the zoning commission's decision to stand, Market Square's competitors likely will not. A referendum is expected, likely backed by Continental Retail Development, which is building the center almost identical to Market Square's.

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