BY RAY SCHAEFER
Enquirer Contributor
UNION TOWNSHIP -- Jack McClure is beginning to wonder whether spending about $15,000 to improve his home on Massachusetts Drive in Clermont County was a good investment.
Mr. McClure was one of more than 350 Union Township residents who went to Glen Este High School on Wednesday to look at maps and plans for the proposed Eastgate Parkway.
Like the vast majority, Mr. McClure was upset at the possibility of having a new, heavily traveled road in his neighborhood.
"I just moved in here a year and a half ago," he said. "I've put in around $15,000 into it. My real estate (value) is going to go down."
The parkway would begin at Mount Carmel-Tobasco Road west of Interstate 275, and stretch about three miles to the Bach-Buxton Road extension.
Residents viewed three alternatives:
A two-lane highway running north of Clough Pike. It would veer to the south at Glen Este-Withamsville Road and run about 1 1/2 miles. The road would turn east at Shayler Road and continue to Bach-Buxton Road.
According to estimates from the Clermont County engineer's office and the consulting firm Pflum, Klausmeier and Gehrum, 71 homes on 75 acres would be affected, plus five acres of industrial development and 63 acres of farmland.
A road south of Clough Pike, also cutting sharply to the south at Glen Este-Withamsville Road, stretching about a mile across Shayler and turning east near Timber Creek Drive. It would run across McMann Road and on to Bach-Buxton.
According to county figures, 63 homes on 46 acres could be affected, plus eight acres of commercial property and 53 acres of farmland.
A road along Clough Pike, joining the northern version of the proposed road at Chanticleer Way, crossing Shayler Road and on to the Bach-Buxton extension. This choice could affect the most property: 142 homes on 93 acres; 14 acres of commercial development; 52 acres of farmland.
Residents didn't appear to like any of the choices.
Larma Suder, who lives on Larma Lane and whose family used to own the land on which the street now stands, viewed the alternative north of Clough Pike and wondered how she and her mother could stand the ordeal of moving.
"We've all lived in our homes between 40 and 50 years," Mrs. Suder said. "Most of us are retired, and it's hurtful to lose our homes."
Clermont County Engineer Carl Hartman said the parkway is being studied to relieve increasing traffic, especially on Ohio 32 and Ohio 125, two of the county's busiest roads. Traffic studies by the county engineer's office have shown that the number of vehicles registered in the township has jumped from 29,781 in 1990 to 50,710 in 1997.
Mr. Hartman said a plan will be chosen by mid-September, and a public hearing before county commissioners would be held in November, but it could be between 2002 and 2005 before construction actually started.
