WEST CHESTER TWP. - A public hearing begins Tuesday to decide the fate of a proposed lifestyle center one highway exit away from another already under construction.

INFOGRAPHIC

• New mall project sites

        The West Chester Zoning Commission approved rezoning 75 acres on the northwest corner of Cincinnati-Dayton Road and Interstate 75 for shops, restaurants, offices and a movie theater last month. A conditional use permit for just the shops, restaurants (including a Jeff Ruby steakhouse) and Showcase Cinemas on the site was rejected this summer at the township's board of zoning appeals.

        But West Chester Township trustees might overturn the rezoning. They are expected to vote Oct. 22.

        With a vote pending, trustees have declined to discuss the project. However, all three trustees have previously said they prefer mall development in the Union Centre Boulevard area, which was set aside for large retail development in the township's vision plan.

        “We are a victim of our own success here,” Trustee Catherine Stoker said. “I have been receiving lots of comments from the public through phone calls and e-mails. They are negative on that large a development at the Cincinnati-Dayton Road area.”

        The zoning commission, which counts an attorney among its members, disagreed with the township's vision argument when they approved rezoning for the mall Sept. 16. They agreed it wasn't legal to prevent similar developments from emerging elsewhere in the township.

        Either way, the township's mall decision is likely to be fought - either by the project's developer, Neyer Properties Inc., of Evendale, or an opposing developer. A public referendum also is possible.

        A referendum on the project could spell doom for it. The holdup would delay the project so long, that some tenants, such as the theater, would likely build at other locations.

        There is an appeal pending on the lifestyle center, called West Chester Market Square. It was filed in Butler County Common Pleas Court after the conditional use permit was denied this summer. Neyer owns the property but Steiner & Associates of Columbus, the developers of Newport on the Levee, would develop the 675,000-square-foot center.

        The suit shows the high stakes in West Chester's mall war among developers competing to attract upscale retailers and restaurants. Of four proposed sites, two malls are under construction; one has stalled because it doesn't have enough committed tenants.

        The mall war has pitted township officials, business leaders and developers against one another and divided neighbors in this township of 58,000 residents. While homeowners raise concerns about traffic and other impacts of growth, business owners fret about the potential casualties when restaurants, shops and two movie theaters are forced to compete head-to-head.

        Two movie theaters so close to each other would surely doom at least one of them, wrote David Kass, president of Continental Retail Development of Columbus in an e-mail last Wednesday to township officials.

        Continental is building a $100 million lifestyle center called Streets of West Chester at the southeast corner of I-75 and Union Centre Boulevard, with a movie theater expected to open in May.

        While Greater Cincinnati's dominant theater chain, Showcase Cinemas, is the tentative tenant at the Market Square project, a new theater chain based in Texas called Rave Motion Pictures would operate the 4,100-seat theater at Union Centre.

        Some Union Centre Boulevard business leaders oppose Market Square. For the township to permit it would be disregarding its own vision plan, which declares Union Centre the central business district. They also don't want to see a second major commercial center mushroom so close.

        The Union Centre Boulevard Merchant Association, a group of business leaders, owners and property developers in the area, is circulating a petition that urges trustees to stick to the township's vision plan.

        But residents and business owners near the Market Square project have repeatedly urged the township to allow the mall to rise there. Otherwise, less appealing development such as a truck stop or lumberyard may come, they have warned.

        Scott Phillips, a zoning commissioner, maintained when he motioned to approve the project Sept. 16 that competition would enhance both the Market Square and Streets of West Chester centers.

        “The market will take care of itself,” he said. “Both of these developments will be successful.”

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