By Jennifer Edwards
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LIBERTY TWP. - A group of property owners, developers and representatives of political jurisdictions Tuesday whittled down a list of options for a proposed eastward interchange off - or near - the Michael A. Fox Highway at Interstate 75.

They also want the new exit and nearby road improvements to ease traffic congestion and to improve safety in this rapidly growing area.

A final configuration will be decided at the next meeting of interchange "stakeholders" Aug. 14 at the Liberty Township Hall off Princeton Road.

"If this interchange isn't built, you are going to have gridlock," Liberty Township Trustee President Christine Matacic said after Tuesday's two-hour meeting. "You probably will have less commercial development, so that means more taxes for the citizens to maintain the quality of services that we have today."

The three interchange configuration options are:

• A $56 million "free-flowing" interchange off Fox Highway east to Cox Road, which would be widened and extended from where it now stops at Hamilton-Mason Road to Ohio 63 in Monroe. A free-flowing interchange is one that uses on-ramps instead of traffic lights or stop signs to allow cars to proceed onto the road without stopping.

• A $41 million interchange at Hamilton-Mason Road, which now has a bridge over I-75, with improvements to Cox.

• A $46.7 million plan to improve the existing Tylersville Road interchange with local road improvements, including extending Cox to Ohio 63.

Those three options also can be done cheaper without extending Cox and instead improving Butler-Warren Road. Other options include not building the interchange and just widening and extending roads such as Cox.

Once the final configuration is decided, the Butler County Transportation Improvement District and a consulting firm it hired - Resource International Inc. of Blue Ash - will seek federal and state approval.

The soonest the interchange could break ground would be late 2004 or early 2005, said Joseph Cron, a branch manager with Resource International.

Also Tuesday, several landowners who attended the session briefly met afterward with Township Administrator Barry Tiffany. They discussed the potential structure for a proposed joint economic development district (JEDD) to generate money for secondary road improvements.

Under JEDD agreements, earnings taxes from commercial developments and businesses in a prescribed geographical area are set aside for road improvements and other infrastructure work. The agreement must involve a municipality and a township.

Liberty officials plan to enter soon into JEDDs with Mason and/or Hamilton.

E-mail jedwards@enquirer.com.