That 23-acre property sits near The Square @ Union Centre but is zoned for commercial industrial use, not residential. Rejected by the Butler County Planning Commission and West Chester Zoning Commission, the project is slated to go to trustees Tuesday for a zoning hearing and first reading.
Some business owners in the corridor support the upscale apartment complex, including Preecha Lumsum of Budina Pan Asian, who said he hopes the project is eventually approved so more customers come to the restaurant he opened at The Square @ Union Centre five years ago.
“You see the 300, 400 cars out there?” he said, motioning toward the parking lots of companies whose headquarters dot the Union Centre area. “It may be one, two, three cars when you come here on the weekend. Business needs population.”
Having apartment dwellers just down the road would be even better than at the heart of West Chester’s burgeoning downtown because that area needs something commercial, especially entertainment-based, to draw people in the evenings and on weekends from all parts of the township and beyond, Lumsum said.
“You look at the traffic out on Union Centre (Boulevard),” he said. “You’re talking about 20,000 cars a day, but none of them come here because there’s nothing to bring them in here.”
But the proposed new apartment complex doesn’t sit well with Larry Brueshaber, chairman of the West Chester Land Use Committee, who emphasized the West Chester Comprehensive Land Use Plan calls for that parcel to used for commercial development not residential.
“If passed, this would set a very important and potentially damaging precedent for the economic vitality of West Chester and Lakota schools, since as many as six other large apartment developers are watching this case,” Brueshaber said. “If there’s a foothold, then there could be a potential run of these kinds of developments, and I don’t think it generally meshes with the Vision Plan or the general long-term plan of West Chester to have thousands of new apartment units being added.”
Normally, there would be an outpouring of citizens turning out to voice concerns about such a project, he said, but because this one sits in a commercial/industrial area, it doesn’t back up to anyone’s subdivision.
But residents should be concerned, Brueshaber said, because research shows that a residential unit consumes about $1.25 in services for every $1.00 paid in taxes, while commercial users consume about .40 for every $1.00 collected in taxes.
“Should the residents subsidize apartment developers or should West Chester continue on the planned pathway that it is on for economic vitality?” Brueshaber said.
Adding more residents could not only stretch the limits of emergency services, but possibly put a chokehold on local roads, potentially leading existing businesses to look elsewhere, Brueshaber said.
West Chester’s challenge of creating a downtown environment that finds the right commercial-residential mix is different from the one faced by older Butler County communities.
For the city of Hamilton, creating the foot traffic to support existing downtown businesses and grow new ones means actively encouraging apartment development, most notably at the Hamilton Mercantile Lofts and Artspace, a former High Street office building that is being transformed into a mixed-use residential and commercial building.
Residential dwelling units are permitted land uses in the entire downtown area, including the Mercantile Lofts and Artspace, according to Brandon Saurber, Hamilton’s chief of staff.
Hamilton’s adoption of form-based zoning guidelines permits mixed-use buildings (residential & commercial) focusing less on the uses, and more on how these buildings fit within the built context of the downtown area, Saurber said.
“Long term, the vision is that downtown and nearby areas will be the location where an individual or family could live in detached single family home, or an apartment style building, work in one of the growing businesses in the downtown area, and play by enjoying local restaurants, arts, and park facilities along he Great Miami River,” Saurber said. “We want a vibrant downtown.”
For businesses to thrive, Hamilton needs to reach a critical mass of residential development downtown to help support those businesses, Saurber said.
“One of the primary reasons Jackson’s Market decided to locate downtown was due, in part, to the recent influx of residents residing in the downtown area in residential developments such as the Mercantile Lofts and Artspace,” he said.
In Middletown, city officials are now looking at what the balance between commercial and residential should be, said Denise Hamet, the city’s economic development director.
“We’ve done a draft (housing) study,” she said. “You want to look at what housing project you have and what do you need.”
That includes recruitment of residents for new economy jobs and having the residential pieces in places for them to find housing.
“If those companies are looking to attract young engineers, where do they want to live?” Hamet said. “Having the product that’s affordable to them but has the design needs that they’re looking for is vital.
That’s why city officials support Middletown’s urban core development.
“It’s been really demonstrated that that is where young professionals want to live,” Hamet said.
Already in the midst of a multimillion dollar makeover to help accommodate that is the former Fifth Third Tower on the corner of Central Avenue and South Main Street, which is being transformed into the residential apartments of the Goetz Tower.
There’s also been talk of bringing apartments to the former Manchester Inn and the Snider Ford/Sonshine buildings.
Updated zoning for downtown contained two zoning classification, as opposed to previous zoning which was exclusively for commercial uses and prohibited residential, Hamet said.
“Market studies indicated that Middletown’s downtown had more commercially zoned property than the market could absorb,” she said.
The new zoning allows for residential uses on the upper floors of buildings in the core area of downtown. Commercial areas on the perimeter of the core were re-zoned for residential and office uses.
“We do value ‘feet on the street’ and have planned our downtown zoning to support a mixed use concept,” Hamet said. “The mixture of residential and commercial provides for a better, market-driven economy for the urban center.”
Hamet said Middletown has many historical buildings that would be great mixed use buildings with commercial on the first floor and residential upstairs and plans to host a developers day later this year to highlight projects underway and property available for development.
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