By Cindy Schroeder
Enquirer staff writer

CRESCENT SPRINGS - A plan for a $56 million shopping center apparently will proceed against the recommendation of the Kenton County Planning Commission.

Crescent Springs City Council gave its initial approval to a conceptual plan for the Buttermilk Towne Center after 90 minutes of discussion Monday night. The vote was 5-1, with council member Nick Berry dissenting.

Sept. 2, the Kenton County Planning Commission rejected the proposal to develop the office and retail project, based on concerns over traffic and signs.

Among planners' concerns: The proposed signs were too big and too tall, the traffic study did not adequately address the impact of the additional traffic nearby, and the spacing of the intersections didn't meet Crescent Springs' minimum zoning requirements.

Planning Commission members also expressed concerns that a planned bridge from the site to a park-and-ride lot operated by the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky would not be built.

It was intended to reduce traffic on surrounding streets.

The developer, Bear Creek, has said it has money for the bridge, but TANK has not approved it..

"We're continuing to pursue the bridge with TANK,'' Steve Kelly, Bear Creek Capital's director of development, said after Monday's meeting. "We haven't given up on that.''

Several Crescent Springs officials noted that Bear Creek had agreed to use the money it would have spent on the bridge on other traffic-related improvements in case it can't get approval for the bridge.

Council Member Tom Vergamini estimated the bridge would cost "at least a million dollars.'' However, Kelly later said he couldn't give a cost estimate for the bridge.

Crescent Springs City Council's preliminary approval of the stage I plan comes with four conditions that mostly address traffic, design and construction issues. They include presenting all traffic improvements proposed for the site to the city engineer for review and approval, building a bridge over the existing railroad tracks connecting the development to Buttermilk Crossing Drive, and updating the traffic study, if a shopping center tenant would own or occupy a space larger than the 45,000 square feet proposed for a Remke Market.

Council called a special meeting for 6 p.m. Wednesday at the city building to take a final vote on the ordinance.

Council voted to approve the plan from Montgomery developer Bear Creek Capital in December through a municipal order, which requires one vote of council. However, Kenton Circuit Judge Douglas Stephens recently ruled that action invalid, saying council should have approved the plan by an ordinance, which requires two readings. As a result, Bear Creek Capital had to resubmit its plan to area planners and repeat the approval process.

Kelly said the legal challenge has not slowed the project. He said most of the 129 families in the Crest Mobile Home Park have been relocated and crews have begun demolishing some homes and done some "incidental clearing'' of the 46-acre site. Kelly said the 290,000-square-foot office and retail center, which will have a Rhodes Furniture store and a Remke Market as the anchors, "is still on schedule'' to open in July 2005.

Developers have said the project is about 70 percent leased.

Crescent Springs officials also are expected to revise a neighborhood concept plan Wednesday, which gives a general description of the project's 46 acres and appropriate uses for that site. By a 6-0 vote Monday, Crescent Springs City Council followed the county planning commission's unanimous recommendation to approve that change.

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E-mail cschroeder@enquirer.com