LIBERTY TWP. — In a rare case that trustees say shows how urgent it is to bring businesses to this fast-growing suburb, land along Hamilton-Mason Road has been rezoned from business to residential use.

        A nursing home and senior-citizen cottages and apartments are planned for seven acres on Hamilton-Mason Road, just north of its intersection with Cox Road, backing up to the Four Bridges subdivision.

        The nursing home portion of the development will sit on West Chester Township property, and the housing will be in Liberty.

        Rezoning the Hamilton-Mason Road site, where the township had hoped to see businesses built by now, was a painful decision, Trustee Bob Shelley said. The measure passed unanimously at the trustees meeting Monday.

        “Our goal is to have business, and to do residential is really kind of tough,” he said. “To have it go the other way is not real pleasing to me. It is important to have the commercial base and for us to come around and rezone it back goes down hard.”

        Carespring Health Care Management of Eastgate envisions a 144-bed nursing home, apartments for retirees and 25 to 30 cottages with two and three bedrooms. Construction on the $35 million complex could start as early as this fall and open by spring of 2004.

        The rezoning underscores the need to quickly push through a proposed eastward interchange just west of the proposed nursing center, off the Michael A. Fox Highway at Interstate 75, officials say.

        The interchange would run about a quarter-mile east off Fox Highway and join an extended Cox Road, which now ends at Hamilton-Mason. Cox would be widened to five lanes and join Ohio 63 in Monroe.

        The interchange and road would provide access to more than 600 acres of undeveloped land zoned for commercial use.

        The urgency to bring more businesses to Liberty comes as homes are being built there at a stunning rate. Between 1990 and 2000, the population shot up 147 percent and now stands at 25,000 people.

        More than a dozen subdivisions are under construction, and thousands more homes are coming. Many of the 6,000 homes predicted to rise in Southeastern Butler County in the next five years are expected to be in Liberty.

        There are few businesses in Liberty to offset the cost of providing services to residents. For every $1.50 the township spends on residential services such as fire protection, it receives $1 back in residential taxes, officials say. Businesses, on the other hand, pay $1.50 for every $1.50 they receive in services from the township.

        But many residents who flocked here for quiet suburban living are dismayed at the interchange proposal and the prospect of commercial development, especially near their homes.

        They say they would prefer the area remain residential, especially if the coming development ushers in more convenience stores, fast-food restaurants and strip shopping centers, such as those that line the main business district at Cincinnati-Dayton Road and the Fox Highway.

        “We are willing to accept the growth, but we want to do it with taste and the least amount of inconvenience possible,” said Tom Farrell, president of Four Bridges Homeowners Association.

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