Plans for Millikin Road Interchange move forward with $10M infusion from county

The commissioners previously okayed $2.75 million for design, engineering and other costs to hook water and sewer up to the project.

Township Trustee Steve Schramm — who says he has been spearheading culling contributors — told the Journal-News the commissioners' gift could be the final piece in funding the project.

“They really kind of closed the loop on the last piece. I’m sort of telling people right now that I feel like we’re fully funded, even though I know there are some potential gaps, as we don’t fully know what some of our right-of-way costs are going to be,” Schramm said. “There’s a potential for a couple million dollars one way or the other in process of land acquisition and right-of-way acquisition. I think we’re fully prepared as a township to step up and cover that if we need to and I’m still in the process of dialing for dollars.”

Here’s the funding breakdown:

The Butler County Regional Transportation District is managing the project and Director Dan Corey said the plan is to start purchasing right-of-way this year.

Trustee Tom Farrell told the Journal-News the project has been on “vision plan” documents for roughly 20 years but concerted efforts to make it a reality started a decade ago. He said it is worth the wait.

“This Millikin interchange is not about an interchange it’s about the benefit to the residents, the businesses and the community for generations to come, not just today. That’s why our vision is so vivid and we have worked so hard to accomplish it,” Farrell said. “This investment from the township, the state and what they have done to contribute, all of this adds to the local economy and the surrounding region. But more importantly the county’s financial support certainly reinforces the shared vision for Millikin, we are on the same page and it lends momentum and credibility to the project.”

Officials have conservatively estimated the interchange project, when fully phased out, is going to be worth $388 million in new investment. There are about 700 undeveloped acres slated for commercial development in the Millikin Road area.

The township has created the Millikin Innovation District which lays out new zoning for future development of the area and Trustee Todd Minnear said “it’s all jobs and commerce type stuff.”

“Liberty Twp. is short on commercial — we need additional businesses to support the tax base,” he said. “We don’t need to dump another 10,000 residents in that 700 acres. Aside from the tax implications, it would put extreme pressure on the livability of the area as well as schools and police and fire services.”

The trustees say they don’t have any potential developers yet — solid funding had to be in place before they could start wooing businesses — but the plan is to bring “high quality office, medical, research, technology, advanced manufacturing, light industrial” to the area surrounding the interchange, according to MID documents.

Schramm said they were able convince the state to pony up all that cash because it is all about creating businesses and jobs. Ancillary commercial development might ensue but it’s not a priority.

“There may eventually be some restaurants, there may eventually be some hotels or entertainment as support to that,” Schramm said. “But it will be held in reserve and by our approval only, so it’s allowed but we have to bless it.”

Commissioner T.C. Rogers said there are a number of reasons this was a good investment — the money will come out of the commissioners' “discretionary” spending account — of county dollars including increased property and sales tax dollars, “it’s a chance for us to raise our balance sheet and the value of the assets for Butler County,” he said adding it is also a big benefit to local residents.

“Particularly in Liberty Twp. if they don’t get additional commercial development to pay the taxes to run the township then it’s going to fall to just the residential homes in the area. That would make their taxes go higher which has happened in several bedroom communities across the state.”

Schramm said while all the funding is basically locked down there is still much to do before they break ground in two to three years and it will probably take about 18 months to build it.

He said they are still studying the best way to pay for their portion of the project — cash or take out a bond — but they have already established TIF (tax increment financing) district so any costs will eventually be born by the businesses that inhabit the area in the future.

“I think we have money either way to replenish the money,” he said. “It’s kind of like if you’ve got the money in the bank do you buy your house with cash or get a mortgage. We’ll have to make that decision based on bond counsel.”