In the first annexation request, the city and Mt. Holly Farms are jointly petitioning county commissioners to annex land from Xenia Twp.
Mt. Holly Farms owns the 13.5-acre property at 855 Lower Bellbrook Road, which has an approximately 25,000-square-foot building that formally was used as a call center. The property was sold to Mt. Holly Farms in 2020, who is now marketing the building for lease.
Xenia allowed Mt. Holly Farms to connect city water to the building in September 2020 for free on the condition that it be annexed into the city later.
Xenia owns about five acres of land between 855 Lower Bellbrook Road and the Glady Run Wastewater Treatment plant, said Xenia City Planner Brian Forschrer. The city wants to annex this land as part of the first annexation, too.
Forschrer said this land could serve as potential land for the water treatment plant to expand.
The second annexation the city hopes to make is city-owned Old Towne Reserve park, which sits on Old Springfield Pike. The park runs up along the Little Miami Scenic bike path. The park is county-operated, but city owned and currently is in Xenia Twp. If the annexation is approved, Greene County will still maintain the park, Forschrer said. The park would fall under Xenia city zoning and Xenia fire and police services.
Xenia City Council approved on Thursday sending the petitions for both annexations to the commissioners. Annexing city-owned land maximizes the taxpayer’s control over a city asset, Forschrer said.
Neither of these potential annexations are related to the city’s potential annexation of Central State University.
The campus annexation, which Xenia Twp. opposes, would allow Xenia to collect income tax from Central State’s 350 employees. Following a Ohio Supreme Court ruling in July 2020, Xenia City Council in September 2020 approved the annexation of about 45 acres stretching from the city limits to Central State along the bike path known as the Ohio to Erie Trail. The bike path is city-owned.
This did not include buildings on Central State land. For the university to be annexed into the city, Central State will have to file a petition and Xenia will go through another annexation process, city officials said.
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