“We’re excited about it transforming in the future into a residential product that’s currently missing,” Kettering City Manager Matt Greeson said of the 1,250 park that straddles Kettering and Beavercreek and is home to more than 4,000 jobs.
“We think that will give people the opportunity to not only work at the research park, but also live there as well,” he added. “And that will enhance the vitality of the area make it even a more attractive area for commercial investment.”
Kettering has made multiple changes in and around research park to entice growth there. Nonetheless, a milestone proposal like an apartment complex in the 300-unit range that Industrial Commercial Properties has talked about for more than two years would face layers of scrutiny.
Kettering modifications include the widening of County Line Road to five lanes from Vale Drive to Dorothy Lane and a bikeway extension along that route.
Others may be more suited to the development ICP has discussed on property one of its subsidiaries now owns along County Line Road from Research Boulevard north to Spaulding Road. They involve expanding land uses in certain areas of MVRP for residential and retail, and including the now-sold property in an area that can make it eligible for development-related tax abatements.
Kettering has “done a number of things to make (MVRP) desirable and competitive for economic development,” Greeson said.
Submitting plans for the land may be months away, ICP executive Dean Miller has said.
The timing of presenting a formal plan is contingent on “linking up with the right partner and their timing,” he said. “So, we’re continuing that process to identify the partner.”
Once that occurs, Greeson said, “there are a number of steps that they’ll have to go through.”
They include Kettering approving a conditional use for the site, officials have said. That would involve a public hearing on an issue that drew opposition from leaders of neighboring Mount St. John and the Bergamo Center for Lifelong Learning in 2021.
They said a residential development of about 300 units would impact area noise, traffic and environmental issues in the area.
A plan also would have to satisfy the Miami Valley Research Park Foundation’s covenants, conditions and rules, said Charlie Giles, its president and CEO.
The CCRs helps guide developments at the MVRP “to make sure it all fits together with what the park is all about,” Giles said.
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