By Erica Solvig
The Cincinnati Enquirer

HAMILTON TOWNSHIP - Warren County's fastest growing township is considering larger lot size requirements for new subdivisions.

The township zoning commission, at the request of township trustees, might increase requirements so that new homes would have to be built on nearly 1/2-acre lots for areas with sewers and on 1 1/2 acres for lots without sewer access, according to Gary Boeres, the township's planning and zoning administrator. The issue will be discussed at the zoning commission's May 10 meeting.

The township now requires homes to be on 12,800-square-foot lots in areas with sewers and 1-acre lots for areas without sewer access.

Township Trustee Becky Ehling said trustees wanted to look at increasing lot sizes in order to match health department requirements. She said the move has nothing to do with residents' efforts to put an initiative on the ballot that would force the township to do the make the change.

"We needed to get in line with the health department," Ehling said.

Elsewhere in the county, Clearcreek Township is proposing changing lot-size standards as well as a moratorium prohibiting any more permits from being issued.

From 1997 to 2003, Warren County issued 3,343 building permits for Hamilton Township. That's about a third of all the permits it issued during those seven years for all the county's townships.

Jeff Carey, one of about a dozen residents working to put an initiative on the ballot, says the group continues to look at the issue.

"It's not quite where Warren County is, but it's pretty close," Carey said of the township's proposed change. "It doesn't necessarily mean an initiative is off the table."

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com