The current home to those agencies is leased from a private owner. The new One Stop Center — planned off Ohio 55 and Barnhart Road, just west of Interstate 75 in Troy — is a project by Miami County with space to be leased to the agencies by the county.
The current One Stop Shop location has a number of issues, including a hard-to-maneuver parking lot and not enough space for operations and parking. There are also growing issues with ingress and egress of vehicles because of continuing development north of the One Stop Shop along Experiment Farm Road, including the Pella garage doors operation.
Project participants met Monday with commissioners and project architect Rick Willis of App Architecture of Englewood. Participants also included county Clerk of Courts Shawn Peebles, county Administrator Charlotte Colley and two representatives of the state Department of Public Safety, among others.
Willis discussed the proposed layout of the building for each agency and the addition of space to accommodate the county planning and development department.
The department now is located at the Hobart Center for County Government in Troy. The plumbing inspectors from Miami County Public Health will join the planning and zoning staff at the One Stop Center because they work closely with the planning staff.
The county commissioners said they are eager to keep the project moving. It has been discussed for several years, with the first proposed location on county-owned land along Lytle Road north of Troy ruled out because of high site development costs.
The commissioners wanted a central location in the county. They bought the project site land at the northwest corner of Ohio 55 and Barnhart Road last year from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati for $450,000.
“We are going to take off on this,” Commission President Greg Simmons said of plans for 2022.
Commissioner Ted Mercer pointed to the problematic existing One Stop Shop site.
“To us, this is a big deal … to be able to provide a service to our consumers,” he said.
Among next steps will be a traffic study by project engineers Choice One Engineering of Sidney. Access to the center will be off Barnhart Road.
The cost estimate includes site work and a one-story building. It does not include furnishings and equipment or technology costs.
A project plan can be ready for review by the end of January, Willis said. Construction likely will take around nine months, he said.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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