Sunday, January 24, 1999
Lebanon loses woods soon
Work to start on less-dense subdivision
BY RICHELLE THOMPSON
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — By next winter, 49 acres along the meandering Markey Road a mile from the city's historic downtown will be stripped into subdivision lots. The woods will be cut down to make way for 72 ranch-style homes.
That's not what residents wanted. Neither did developer Jeff Harris, of the Cincinnati-based Monogram Properties Inc.
But Lebanon City Council left him no choice when it denied his request for rezoning in August, he said Wednesday.
Mr. Harris plans to begin construction in early spring on infrastructure for the Waterbury Falls subdivision. He'll build the streets, sanitary and storm sewer systems, curbs and gutters, and lay the water lines.
Mr. Harris said he sold the lots to another builder, whom he would not identify. That builder expects to complete the subdivision by winter 2000, Mr. Harris said.
Markey Road resident Winona McCauley responded to the news of impending construction with quiet resignation.
“I don't think there's anything legally we can do, other than try to sway him with common sense,” Mrs. McCauley said. “I don't think anybody, even him, believes this would be the best thing for the area.”
In August, council mem bers turned down Mr. Harris' request for a zoning change to Planned Unit Development (PUD) that would have allowed him to build homes on smaller lots. Under that proposal, Mr. Harris said, he planned to build 78 $300,000 homes and leave 10 acres of the woods untouched.
Without a PUD, Mr. Harris said, his only alternative was to use nearly every inch of the 49 acres to build 72 homes costing $100,000 each. This option won't turn a profit, Mr. Harris said, but he has to move forward with the project to meet “certain commitments.”
Council “made a decision that they want to bring cheap houses into the city and that's what they'll get,” he said. “I wanted to bring a first-class development into the city.”
Although Mrs. McCauley isn't pleased with the proposal, she still supports council's decision, even if it means her new neighbors will live in $100,000 homes on 100-foot lots. Mrs. McCauley; husband, Jeff; and their three children moved in 1993 to their $250,000-range home on a 5-acre lot to “get out of the city and get a little more elbow room.”
Council's stand for less-dense development sets a precedent for the area, Mrs. McCauley said.
“It was going to be the domino that set the stage for how the rest of the area was going to be zoned,” she said. “Even if it has to be developed with lower expensive homes, then — in that respect — I'm still glad that it was not rezoned.”
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