Prices are to start in the $500,000 range, but no stores or strip center are envisioned in the latest plan for the development.
The Clearcreek Twp. Zoning Commission unanimously recommended that the township trustees grant the rezoning of the land for residential and business development, as requested by Oberer in a public hearing on Dec. 5.
While primarily residential, the plan previously set aside five acres for a restaurant, store or small strip center, as well as the homes, described as similar to those in upscale subdivisions such as Stone Ridge also in Clearcreek Twp. and Fox Ridge Estates in Beavercreek.
Now the trustees are scheduled to consider rezoning the entire parcel - part of more than 640 acres around Red Lion owned by Stolle Properties — for an upscale housing subdivision.
“We like the all residential layout better. So yes, we think that this is a better plan and would like to make it part of our request,” Gregory Smith of Oberer handling the project, said in an email on Dec. 21.
The email, acquired in response to a public-records request by this newspaper, was sent during communications between Oberer, township staff and Warren County Regional Planning Commission staff.
Smith projected total investment at $42 million.
On Monday, Jan. 9, the Clearcreek Twp. trustees are scheduled to consider the rezoning for residential use.
While different from the rezoning unanimously recommended by township zoning commissioners, the change last week met the approval of at least one of the residents who attended the December public hearing on the development, the first large one proposed since a $8.2 million relocation of the five-point intersection of Ohio 741, Ohio 123 and Ohio 122 at the center of Red Lion.
"There's so much other space available for commercial," said Paul Pomeroy, a resident also part of long-range planning for the Red Lion and Hunter communities in anticipation of growth in and around this part of Warren County, east of Interstate 75.
To the north on Ohio 741 is a residential section of Springboro. To the south is the proposed Union Village, a 1,400-acre, mixed-use development.
“This is an area of big change,” Smith said. “It’s a unique little area of transition.”
If approved by the trustees, the rezoning would likely lead to a development plan reviewed by the Warren County Regional Planning Commission.
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