By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LIBERTY TWP. - Residents won a victory Monday when township trustees unanimously agreed to recommend to the township zoning commission increased buffering between Four Bridges homes and a proposed interchange at the Michael A. Fox Highway off Interstate 75.

Four Bridges residents have scrambled to protect their subdivision from development expected with the interchange.

The subdivision, still under construction, contains about 800 homes, condominiums and apartments priced from $250,000 to $900,000.

"Our intention is not to stop progress. It's to do it with class," said Tom Farrell, president of the Four Bridges Homeowners Association. "So far everybody has agreed with us."

Residents want 10 feet high mounding, a mix of 6-foot trees in a triple row, no lighting higher than the existing landscaping, no two-story buildings higher than 35 feet and all buffering completed before construction begins.

They also are requesting that as many existing trees remain as possible and offered to maintain a 10-foot landscaping easement on business property abutting their homes, which would allow neighbors to add to it if they want even more screening.

About 200 neighbors have signed petitions supporting the increased zoning restrictions, which will require the trustees to amend the township's zoning code.

Currently, the minimum buffer requirements are 6-foot pine trees, Mr. Farrell said.

The increased buffering requirements next go before Butler County and Liberty's zoning commissions for public hearings.

The proposal returns early next year to the trustees, who have final say.

Last month, a regional transportation planning board placed the interchange project on a priority list.

Butler County is paying about $388,000 for environmental and traffic studies on the road plan, which calls for the interchange to run east off the Fox Highway at I-75 about a quarter-mile to link to an extended Cox Road.

The soonest the road could be built is in about two years.

But a key piece of land for the interchange - a 96-acre farm between the Fox Highway and Four Bridges - recently was sold to developers.

In other business Monday, trustees unanimously voted to transfer 19.6 acres to the Lakota Board of Education for a future elementary school on Cincinnati-Dayton Road just south of Summerlin Boulevard in northeast LibertyTownship.

Also Monday, trustees announced that they had hired a zoning supervisor, Barry Tiffany, who will start Dec. 16 and earn $42,500 a year.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.