By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer

CRESCENT SPRINGS - A plan for a controversial shopping center and office complex that would replace a mobile home park here is invalid because Crescent Springs City Council violated zoning law in approving it, a Kenton County judge has ruled.

Still unclear is how the ruling will affect the construction timetable for the proposed $56 million Buttermilk Towne Center.

A representative for developer Bear Creek Capital of Montgomery, Ohio, said the judge's decision could cause "a slight delay.'' However, Greg Scheper, who handles acquisition and governmental affairs for Bear Creek Capital, said the ruling shouldn't affect city council's scheduled vote Monday on the issuance of $56 million in industrial revenue bonds for the project. He added that Bear Creek expects to close on a deal for the site off Anderson Road within two weeks.

Covington lawyer Leonard Rowekamp, who represents the parties suing Crescent Springs and Bear Creek Capital, predicted the judge's ruling will delay construction by at least two months.

Lawyer Pete Summe, who represents the city of Crescent Springs, could not be reached Friday.

"We'll have to walk the stage I development plan back through the approval process,'' Scheper said Friday. "We're working out the details with our attorneys as to exactly what the procedure is for approval.''

In February, the city of Fort Mitchell, a Northern Kentucky developer and nine others appealed Crescent Springs City Council's approval of a stage I, or preliminary development plan, for the Buttermilk Towne Center in a lawsuit filed in Kenton Circuit Court. They said Bear Creek's project was not consistent with Crescent Springs' own zoning ordinance and would divert traffic onto Beechwood Road and other residential streets, causing congestion and safety problems. They also expressed concerns about traffic backups and safety on Buttermilk Pike.

In an order that lawyers received Friday, Kenton Circuit Judge Douglas Stephens addressed only the procedural issue. The judge ruled that Crescent Springs City Council violated its own zoning ordinance when it failed to approve the stage I development plan within the required 45 days. Instead, city officials overrode area planners' recommended disapproval of the plan by a municipal order, which requires only one vote instead of the two votes called for in an ordinance.

"I believe (the developer) will have to resubmit a stage I development plan to the planning commission and go through the entire process again,'' Rowekamp said. "They would have to go through a stage I review and public hearing and then go back to the city. I would think it would be a minimum of a couple of months before they could get (final) approval.''

Mike Schwartz, deputy director of current planning, said planning commission staff is waiting for its lawyer to clarify the judge's ruling.

"I don't know what the decision means at this point,'' Schwartz said Friday. He said area planning staff has asked its lawyer to clarify several issues, including whether another public hearing is required, or whether Crescent Springs City Council can act on the record of the first public hearing and approve the plan by ordinance.

"If they have to go back through the entire process, the next meeting (of the Kenton County Planning Commission) is Sept. 2,'' Schwartz said. "The deadline to get on that agenda is Aug. 12.''

A second lawsuit filed in January by developer Matth Toebben and several other Crescent Springs businesses is still pending. That lawsuit claims Bear Creek misrepresented the planned development as a revitalization of a downtown business district to get approval from the state bond allocation committee. Crescent Springs City Council declared the site a downtown business district in October 2003, but the lawsuit claims the property is solely residential.

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E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com