Article originally published Feb 17, 2005
SUGARCREEK TWP., Greene County — The Feb. 7 Sugarcreek Twp. Zoning Commission meeting saw a bit of verbal sparring between commission chairman Charles Schwegman and the proposed developer of one of the township's hottest developing areas.
The location is the 230. 1-acre Dille farm site at Feedwire Road and Wilmington Pike.
Steve Kelly, vice president of development for Bear Creek Capital, the Cincinnati real estate company that plans to develop the site, said Bear Creek Capital has a contract to buy the land from the Dille trust and needs to move forward "to have a blueprint to develop the property."
The land is to be rezoned from agricultural zoning to a new planned development zoning district, PD-MU, planned multiuse district, that hadn't officially been created yet.
Schwegman said the zoning commission has "been under a time pressure to get this done," and wanted to make sure it gets done properly.
"What is driving the urgency of this?" Schwegman asked Kelly repeatedly.
"We have contractual obligations to move this forward," Kelly said, declining to discuss any specific time frame.
The new zoning district, whose use is to be restricted to the far northwest area of the township in parcels 1 and 2 of the Sugarcreek Comprehensive Development Plan (Wilmington Pike/Feedwire Road area), was proposed in December by the Sugarcreek Twp. trustees.
To become an official part of the township's zoning ordinance, the new text amendments needed a public hearing before the zoning commission, and once they recommended it for approval, another hearing before the township trustees.
Schwegman said he preferred having the text amendments approved by both the commission and trustees before dealing with with the rezoning, since until the trustees approved the amendments, the new zoning designation wouldn't officially exist.
He asked Greene County Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Steve Haller for a legal opinion. Haller said it was up to the commission to decide whether it wished to make the rezoning conditional on the text amendments being approved by the trustees, or whether to hold off on the rezoning until the trustees officially adopt the text amendments.
While the commission members said they would prefer holding off on the rezoning, in the end, they recommended approving the text amendments, with corrections, and in a second hearing recommended approving the rezoning conditional on the trustees approving the zoning text amendments.
The trustees had already scheduled and advertised a special meeting to be held at 7 p.m. Feb. 10 to hold public hearings on the two issues, but that meeting had to be cancelled.
"One of the public hearings was not properly advertised in advance of the meeting," Sugarcreek Twp. Administrator Dan Evers. Evers said the board wants to hold both public hearings on the same date to "eliminate any potential confusion for interested citizens."
The hearings have been rescheduled as part of a special trustee meeting at 7 p.m. Wednesday. The meeting will be held at the Sugarcreek Twp. House, 26 E. Franklin St., Bellbrook.
A number of the 30-plus residents at the Feb. 8 zoning commission meeting expressed concerns about the new zoning district.
Wilmington Pike resident Michael Clary said he believes "mixed use may not be in the best interest of the citizens. Rollandia is on both sides of my property. I don't think you should mix business and residential, at least in a community our size."
Others, including former township trustee Jeanne Nydegger, said the zoning change was being rushed into without thorough review, and residents should know what is being considered. She pointed out a number of inconsistencies in the text amendments, which the commission said would be fixed before any final approval is granted by trustees.
Zoning commission member Peter Jones said they had not yet seen any preliminary plan for the site, but the planned development aspect of the new zoning will give the township more control over what goes onto a site than straight commercial zoning. A detailed plan will have to be presented and accepted at public hearings before the commission and trustees before any construction can begin, he said.
A developer would likely put in retail businesses compatible with the homes he wants to market, which would likely be "more attractive than having Target next to you," he said.
Residents have to consider "what could be there if we did nothing," Schwegman said.
"If you want another big box, turn this down," said township resident Jim Martin. "I know that Kettering wants it."
Jones described the multiuse concept as similar to "new urbanism," which he said, promotes creating livable neighborhoods in downtown areas, allowing residential units to be placed above businesses and/or to be intermixed with office and business uses.
The zoning district must include residential units, according to the text amendments. The intent of the new district, according to the amendments, is "not to create developments which are predominantly one use, i.e., business, office, or residential, but to integrate these elements into a plan whereby the three uses are applied in roughly the same proportion within the overall plan."
Some residents at the meeting expressed concerns about increased traffic being brought to their neighborhoods no matter how the area develops.
According to Norman De-Haven, deputy traffic/safety engineer for the Greene County Engineer's Office, the last traffic study done for Wilmington Pike in the Feedwire Road area was in 1995. At that time, 30,000 vehicles a day passed through the area north of I-675 and 32,000 vehicles a day passed through the area south of I-675 to Clyo Road.
He expects the number now to be at least 35,000 vehicles a day in the Feedwire Road area, "though it may be more than that," he said.
Feedwire Road in the area east of Wilmington Pike sees 17,000 to 18,000 vehicles a day, according to the latest traffic study made in May 2004, he said.
In 1995, "in the pre-Home Depot/Cracker Barrel/Target days," Feedwire Road was averaging 9,000 vehicles a day, he said.
While traffic has doubled on Feedwire Road in the past five years, when the Home Depot development occurred, dual left turn lanes onto Wilmington Pike from Feedwire Road were added at the developer's expense, De-Haven said.
When the Dille property north of Feedwire Road is developed, an additional lane will also be put in on the north side of Feedwire, using Dille property, he said.
Patricia Evanko of Oakwood, one of the Dille's eight children who inherited the farm in a trust when their father, Charles, died in 1999, said in a phone call from her home Feb. 10 that she doesn't want to see her parent's stone mansion torn down for a parking lot.
She said it was built in 1937 for John Patterson's nephew Robert by well-known architect Ellison Smith, and would make a good condo amenity or place for wedding receptions, as there's a 20-by-40-foot swimming pool and large party barn with a huge stone fire place, kitchen and bathroom.
Evanko said she did not want to sell the property but that "four brothers wanted their money," so the trust has been forced to sell.
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