By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

FAIRFIELD - As Southeastern Butler County experiences a building boom despite a downturn in the economy, environmentalist and "smart growth" planners say sprawl is overrunning the region.

To spread the word about ways to plan and control growth, The Smart Growth Coalition of Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky will hold a public forum at the Lane Public Library in Village Green today at 7 p.m.

"It's booming and it's not the kind of stuff we like to see," said Catherine Hartman, the coalition's president and an Evendale city councilwoman. "It's not that we don't want to see growth. We just want to see it well-managed and planned and compact."

Over the next five years, 8,000 new homes are expected in Butler County - 6,000 of which will rise in the southeastern portion of the county, according to Butler's building department. Yet there are few planning and zoning officials to handle the mounting workload amid tight government budgets.

There also needs to be heightened focus on transportation with all the new homes and businesses in the suburbs while Cincinnati loses residents - and its tax base, Ms. Hartman said. Cincinnati's population fell 9 percent, or 32,755 residents, between 1990 and 2000. In that same time, the 13-county Greater Cincinnati region overall grew by 8.9 percent, fueled by rapid growth in suburban communities of Warren, Butler and Boone counties.

"What bothers me isn't so much a regional growth, it's a shift in population," Ms. Hartman said. "People moving from inner areas to outer ones create problems for both areas. The inner areas lose tax base to support infrastructure and the outer areas have to keep up with increased demands for roads and schools and public safety."

Impact fees, Ms. Hartman pointed out, are one way to make growth pay more for itself instead of relying on tax levies. A move is under way from Warren County commissioners to impose impact fees for new homes, but it may be years away because there is no state legislation outlining the rules for such fees.

Tonight's meeting in Fairfield is the third one the coalition has held in Butler County this year and sixth overall in the Tristate, including one Tuesday night in Northern Kentucky's Highland Heights. A dozen more are planned in Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana.

The coalition compiles a report after each meeting and turns it over to the jurisdiction's elected officials and zoning planners. After the series of forums is completed sometime next year, the group will hold a regional smart-growth-planning meeting to push for more restrictive growth regulations.

"Land planning in Ohio hasn't changed since Herbert Hoover was president," Ms. Hartman said. "We are really behind the times. Most states are ahead of us."

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com