By Erica Solvig
Enquirer staff writer

HAMILTON TWP. - Trustees in Greater Cincinnati's fastest-growing municipality are ready to seek proposals from engineering consultants to study how its roads will keep up with a residential boom.

Trustees plan to use the study to help decide whether to begin charging an impact fee for each new home built in the township.

Hamilton Township grew from 9,630 people in 2000 to 14,871 in 2003, according to a Census Bureau estimate. Proponents of an impact fee say it would generate needed money to pay for roads, parks and other township services.

"We had to have a study to legally do that," Trustee Becky Ehling said of imposing the fee for new roads. "We have to have reasoning behind it and we have to document it to determine what amount to put on."

Township officials said the road study could take as long as six months to complete and cost more than $30,000. Trustees have approved the idea, but township staff had to finalize the wording of the bid request, which will be sent out sometime this week.

Hamilton Township already has a voluntary impact fee for subdivisions zoned as planned unit developments. They usually run $250 a home for schools and $200 for parks.

But earlier this summer, trustees hired a firm to study how to impose mandatory impact fees. Trustees said paying for road improvements was among their top reasons for the fee.

Warren County commissioners have expressed concern that the road study now being considered would duplicate the Southwest Warren County Transportation Study. That two-year effort to ease congested roadways is already underway and some township roads are included in the study.

But at a Sept. 1 township trustee meeting, Warren County Engineer Neil Tunison said there's no conflict because the studies focus on different purposes. Also, the county's study does not look at every township road.

E-mail esolvig@enquirer.com