LIBERTY TWP. - Cincinnati leaders insist they are not declaring war on the suburbs, but some in the booming northern communities feel that the city has thrown down the gauntlet with Councilman John Cranley's pledge to block a major highway project.

        In an exchange of words that exposed tensions over

        Cincinnati's population and economic drain while northern suburbs are prospering, Mr. Cranley said this week he has joined a regional transportation board in part to oppose an expanded Interstate 75 interchange in Butler County's Liberty Township.

        Butler County Commissioner Mike Fox was infuriated, and other leaders say regional cooperation from Northern Kentucky to Dayton, Ohio, is needed, not the “us versus them” attitude they see in Mr. Cranley's stance.

        “That's the type of attitude that will take out the core itself,” said John Harris, president and chief executive officer of the Mason Landen Kings Chamber of Commerce. “We do need the core. When you go outside the Ohio Valley, people don't ask for Mason or West Chester. They ask for Cincinnati and that's what we're known as, Cincinnati. Everything that happens in Cincinnati does have an effect on us. I just don't want to see a war started when we have worked so hard to build a trust.”

        Mr. Fox, though, is girding for battle.

        “What he (Mr. Cranley) is saying is, we should hold everyone hostage until they get their act together. He is setting economic development back 50 years and is going to basically break kind of an unwritten courtesy that we have all given each other that we don't raid each other's businesses,” Mr. Fox said. “With all the trouble that Cincinnati is having now, the last thing they need is a war with the suburbs, and by doing this he is declaring war on us. Rather than begrudging our success, they should be emulating it.”

        Sparks began to fly after Mr. Cranley said he joined the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments in part to stop a proposed full interchange off I-75 at the Michael A. Fox Highway, named for the Butler County commissioner. Now, motorists can travel only west, toward Hamilton. A full interchange would link 655 acres of commercially zoned property to the interstate.

        Liberty Township and Butler County officials say the township desperately needs business growth to offset escalating residential costs. Between 1990 and 2000, Liberty's population rocketed 147 percent and now stands at 25,000 people.

        Overall in the Butler and Warren suburbs between 1990 and 2000, populations jumped while Cincinnati lost 32,755, or 9 percent, dropping it below the nation's 50 largest cities.

        The 13-county Greater Cincinnati region overall grew by 8.9 percent, fueled by rapid growth of suburban communities such as Warren, Butler and Boone counties.

        Cranley: Interchange bad

        Mr. Cranley insists he is thinking of the entire region, and that his concern is about sprawl that will take an economic toll. He notes there are a half-dozen new mall projects in Warren and Butler counties, which would not only add to sprawl but hurt existing malls such as Tri-County and Kenwood Towne Centre.

        “To me, this is a debate over sprawl. Fix it first before you develop farmland,” Mr. Cranley said. “If there's one thing I want to make clear, it's that I am not declaring war on the suburbs. I do not believe we should be given a competitive advantage over the suburbs. We have to attract it on our own merits. But I don't think the Liberty interchange is good for the region.” At September's OKI meeting, a Cincinnati city employee - there in the absence of the city's then-OKI representative Councilman Pat DeWine - was among those who voted against the Liberty interchange project getting the go-ahead for environmental and other tests. But the majority of the board approved the tests for the interchange, for which Butler County is paying.

        Cincinnati should have been more active on regional boards such as OKI years ago, Councilman David Pepper said this week. “The city has been totally disengaged from everything regional,” Mr. Pepper said. While he said he did not know enough specifics about the interchange to have an opinion on it, he did say he is concerned about sprawl and agrees with Mr. Cranley's concerns for the region.

        “We are one of the most sprawling regions out there,” Mr. Pepper said. “I know people are concerned that you are building far out, and that will continue to draw money out of things that you already have that you need to fix or maintain better, or polish off.”

        Suburban leaders riled

        But suburban leaders maintain it's unfair for Cincinnati officials to try to halt suburban development as Hamilton County, chiefly Cincinnati, is losing residents and businesses.

        “What's next? Are they going to throw up roadblocks and not let people leave Cincinnati?” West Chester Township Trustee Catherine Stoker asked. “We certainly wish Cincinnati well, but think they should spend more time worrying about improving the living and working environment in Cincinnati so more businesses want to stay or relocate there.”

        West Chester Township Administrator Dave Gully snapped:

        “In order to get a new interchange built in the state of Ohio you have to literally kiss everybody's butt to get it approved. Apparently Cranley's is so small we missed it.”

        The interchange comes back up for discussion at OKI's Nov. 14 meeting, the first one Mr. Cranley will attend in his new post.

        Final state approval on the interchange is on hold pending the release of a regional traffic study from Interstate 275 to Interstate 675 in suburban Dayton, expected early next year.

        Mr. Fox vows that Butler County will “raid” Cincinnati for its businesses if Mr. Cranley helps scuttle the Liberty project, which a University of Cincinnati study estimated could mean 15,100 jobs and millions in tax revenues over 10 to 20 years.

        Butler County is going to borrow the $8 million to $10 million to build the interchange, then repay it with tax increment financing - all local dollars. None will come from federal and state agencies, Mr. Fox stressed.

        “If they kill this project, the gloves are off,” he said. “I can tell you right now, we will aggressively market into Cincinnati. I will make sure we offer Cincinnati businesses everything that we can, and we'll do it until we make up for the number of jobs he's killed.”

        Melissa Koehler, executive director of the West Chester Community Improvement Corp., pointed out that many companies are attracted to suburbs, especially West Chester, because they are located about halfway between Cincinnati and Dayton along I-75. At least two health care providers already have or plan to consolidate their operations in Cincinnati and Dayton to one central location in West Chester.

        “It's not a situation where West Chester is plucking companies from Cincinnati,” Ms. Koehler said. “Many companies choose to locate here when they must consolidate due to corporate restructuring or because of the economic downturn or to more efficiently retain employees. Companies that do business in both Cincinnati and Dayton are choosing West Chester so they don't have to uproot their employees and can continue serving both markets.”

        But Warren County Commissioner Larry Crisenbery, that neighboring county's OKI representative, agrees with Mr. Cranley. Mr. Crisenbery objects to the interchange because he says it will open the floodgates of traffic onto already packed two-lane roads in Mason, which is just east of Liberty.

        Mel Martin, who represents the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission on the OKI board, supports the interchange. He also is chairman of OKI's Land Use Commission and is a former mayor and city council member in Madeira.

        “The interchange will help economic development in the area up there and I don't think it will detract from Hamilton County at all. I don't think that's our problem,” Mr. Martin said. “If we can get (bus enhancements and light rail from Metro Moves) going, jobs will come back. That's the answer to retaining jobs and population in Hamilton County. It doesn't have anything to do with what Butler does with this interchange.

        “If this is what Butler County wants and thinks they need, then I'm going to go along with it,” he said.

        “I wouldn't want someone coming to Madeira and tell us what to do.”

        E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com

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