By Sheila McLaughlin
The Cincinnati Enquirer

LOVELAND - A legal battle over allowing commercial zoning on the historic White Pillars site will get even more expensive for taxpayers.

Assistant City Manager Tom Carroll said the city must pay $40,000 in interest and legal fees by Sept. 5 to continue carrying the debt while the sale to Hines-Griffin Joint Venture and Parrott & Strawser is postponed because of lawsuits.

The developers had planned to buy the 75-acre parcel along Ohio 48 for $3.4 million to build 72 high-end single-family houses, 89 townhouses and a 16-acre commercial development.

The city owes $2.3 million on the property, Carroll said, and stands to recoup that when the property is sold as well as make another $200,000 annually in tax revenue when the $65 million project is finished.

The commercial development has been at the center of two court complaints. The first lawsuit is pending on an appeal by Loveland challenging a Clermont County judge's decision that would force the city to accept a referendum petition on rezoning the property. About 50 residents calling themselves Voice of the Electorate (VOTE) sued the city after administrators threw out referendum petitions demanding council reverse commercial zoning on the property.

A second action filed by VOTE leaders David Miller and Paul Elliott also accuses the city of violating its zoning procedures. It is scheduled for a hearing Wednesday in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court to determine whether the lawsuit was filed in the right county.

Carroll said he didn't expect any significant decision on the second suit at next week's hearing, and blamed the delay on Miller and Elliott because they are representing themselves.

"No one prevented the sale of the property," Miller said. "It could have been sold a long time ago. They forced us into court. They could have settled this any time. They could have taken the petitions."

E-mail smclaughlin@enquirer.com