IF YOU GO
WHAT: Liberty Twp. Board of Trustees meeting
WHERE: Princeton Pike Church of God, 6101 Princeton Glendale Road, Liberty Twp.
WHEN: 6 p.m. Feb. 16
WHY: Zoning hearing for a 145-unit single-family home subdivision to be built on Vista Verde Golf Course, 4780 Millikin Road, Liberty Twp.
A company that has designed, built and managed upscale communities in Hamilton, Butler and Warren counties is looking to build its next one on 89 acres north of Millikin Road and just west of Ohio 747.
The development is planned for what has been, since 1988, Vista Verde Golf Course. Welsh Development intends to incorporate the Vista Verde name into the new development, according to Megan Adams, the Cincinnati-based company’s land development manager.
“The Vista Verde property is a great location being near Millikin Road, (Ohio) 747, and the Butler County Veterans Highway, all which provide easy access to work and shopping,” Adams said. “Over the past 20 years, Welsh Development has developed numerous subdivisions in Liberty Twp., such as Cedarbrook, Creekside Meadows, Panther Run Estates, Lanes Landing, Autumn Creek Estates, Yankee Estates and Lakota Woods. The Liberty Twp. area is very desirable due to excellent schools, low crime rate, numerous shopping and restaurants options and easy access to I-75.”
The project calls for approximately 145 single-family homes to be built with a minimum lot size of nearly a half-acre with several lots being larger, Adams said.
Homes will range from between 2,500 and 3,600 square feet in size with prices expected to run in the $300,000 to $400,000 range, she said.
Trustees are scheduled to vote Feb. 16 on changing three separate residential zoning districts to one so the entire property is consistent as far as the zoning code.
Current zoning for the site spans three residential zoning districts. For two of the districts, lot size, setbacks and building height are exactly the same with the third actually allowing for smaller lots than one of the other two.
“For the township and the future residents of the development, Welsh Development would prefer a single zone district in order to have consistency among all the lots,” Adams said.
As all three zoning districts are residential and allow for the size lot that the company is proposing, the project will move forward regardless of the vote, she said. Site work is scheduled to begin this spring, and the first section of lots will be available in the late summer, Adams said.
Bob Niehaus, who has lived in a subdivision just north of the golf course for almost 17 years, told the Journal-News that he and other residents are concerned the new community will negatively affect their quiet neighborhood in property value, traffic and privacy.
Niehaus said he plans to ask trustees during a Feb. 16 hearing on the matter to do as much as possible to minimize encroachment by the new development, especially via two small street “stubs” that have never been completed by connecting them to outside communities.
“This subdivision’s been allowed to mature and grow and be what it is for over 35 years and just because there’s a stub there doesn’t mean it has to go through,” Niehaus said.
Adams said discussions she’s had with nearby residents have focused on how the size, scope and character of the new development will have a positive effect on the area.
“It will mix well with what is already there,” she said. “We’re not going to come in and build tiny, cheap houses on small lots. The stuff we’re going to build is going to be of the same caliber or higher caliber than what’s there.”
Vista Verde Golf Course officials could not be reached for comment.
The zone change is scheduled to go before trustees at a meeting scheduled to start at 6 p.m. Feb. 16 at Princeton Pike Church of God, 6101 Princeton-Glendale Road, to accommodate an expected larger-than-usual crowd.
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