MONROE — Middletown Regional Hospital's effort to move to Warren County could be a done deal by summer, a local official involved in the negotiations said Wednesday.

        The move, however, might be to this city instead of the Turtlecreek Township site that has been the focus for more than a year, Monroe Mayor Mike Morris said.

        “It's the one plan that Middletown, Monroe and the hospital are discussing,” Mr. Morris said.

        The latest permutation of the long-running negotiations would put Middletown Regional just west of Interstate 75 in Monroe rather than on the east side in Turtlecreek Township, Mr. Morris and Middletown Mayor David Schiavone both said Wednesday. The overall location of the hospital's proposed 550-acre health and technology campus is the same, they said, but the pieces — such as doctors' offices, education, research and high-tech partners — would move around.

        “It's just a matter of what goes on what side of I-75,” Mr. Morris said.

        Early indications are that Monroe is more receptive to a new hospital than Turtlecreek residents and officials have been.

        “As a parent, I like the idea of having a hospital so close,” said Bill Brisbin, a resident of Monroe's Overbrook Park neighborhood, about a mile from the proposed hospital site.

        Monroe's director of development, Jay Stewart, characterized the prospect as “a once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity.”

        Mr. Morris expects the hospital deal to be cemented by mid-summer, he said, but “I'd like to see it done quicker than that.”

        Hospital talks shifted direction this week after Warren County commissioners in an April 4 meeting stuck by their opposition to the Turtlecreek site. The commissioners' trump card is that they could refuse to let the hospital annex that site into Middletown because its contiguousness to Middletown is debatable.

        Middletown Regional has said all along that it wants to remain in Middletown and, more importantly, wants to ensure that the city doesn't take an economic hit from the move. The latest plan would involve some sort of revenue-sharing between Monroe and Middletown, officials say.

        The new plan also would largely take the commissioners out of the game. Annexation by Monroe would make zoning Monroe's call.

        News of the discussions was met with mixed feelings in Turtlecreek. Trustee Dan Jones said he worries that the township would have less control if Monroe took the lead because Middletown had agreed in principle to concessions including revenue-sharing and annexation limitations.

        “If it's all in the city of Monroe, we're powerless as to what happens,” Mr. Jones said.

        He and others are assuming Monroe would annex the Turtlecreek area, although Mr. Morris said the city has no plans to do so.

        Chuck Turner, leader of a group of township residents opposed to the hospital move, said they don't want Monroe annexation any more than they wanted Middletown annexation.

        Otherwise, Mr. Turner said, the possibility of the hospital going west of I-75 is good news for his Keep Out group, even if it means other development on their side of the interstate.

        “We think you're going to see a Kroger superstore, a CVS pharmacy, et cetera, there,” he said. “Nevertheless, those things would be a lot less cumbersome from a congestion standpoint. The neighbors here would rather see anything than a hospital, even if it's a chemical plant.”

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