The Hampton is planned for a small section of a 25-acre property located on that corner, also home to a Fifth Third Bank, Chick-Fil-A, Graeter’s and City Barbecue, as well as a nearby Premier Health emergency room, which was opened in 2021.
City council approved advancing a rezoning and modification to the property, though city legal counsel Josh Lounsbury said that even if the city council were to vote down the rezoning, the decision would likely be unenforceable.
“I believe then the move would be to file a motion to enforce the judgment entry, which would 100% be granted by the court,” he said. “So you’d have the same outcome but with legal fees added to it.”
The property has a history of litigation, City Planner Randy Burkett said at the most recent Beavercreek City Council meeting.
In 1997, the city council rezoned the property to accommodate commercial development, but a voter referendum in November of that year overturned that rezoning. The property owner, the Lofino family, filed a federal lawsuit against the city to reinstate the commercial zoning, which was settled in May of 2000.
Further negotiations about what happens to the property have subsequently involved the courts, according to city documents, most notably in 2018, and again in 2021 with the construction of the Premier Health Emergency Room.
However, subsequent court orders modifying terms of the agreement included a condition allowing the increase of the square footage of development from 185,000 feet to 200,000 feet to account for outlying structures, city documents show, as well as other changes to setbacks and other elements.
Monica MacFarland, a Beavercreek resident who participated in the referendum in 1997, criticized the court order for continually walking back the will of the residents who voted to turn back the zoning nearly 30 years ago.
“Understand that taking an ordinance to referendum is no small matter. Residents from all over the city collected thousands of signatures to get on the ballot for the November election … how is it that every legal filing the Lofinos sent out, the limits placed on the property were expanded?” MacFarland said. “At every turn, hard won gains by citizens were eroded.”
“We are not asking for no development,” she added. “What we’re asking is to have the development be within the scale of that intersection, and to benefit the neighbors rather than somebody coming in off the freeway.”
Resident Laureene Bollinger questioned the logic of building a hotel so close to a densely residential area, when Beavercreek has several other hotels closer to I-675.
“It kind of reminds me of someone who would be trying to buy a delightful pair of shoes in size nine, when you have a size 10 foot,” she said. “This seems like a lot that is going to be awfully congested.”
City council discussed at length issues related to traffic and sight lines to nearby single-family homes. Councilwoman Sarah Bills proposed modifying nearby side streets to include speed bumps and signs to discourage motorists from cutting through neighborhoods where children play, according to residents who spoke at the meeting, and Councilman Pete Bales proposed an additional condition mandating a six-foot-high berm between the hotel and surrounding homes.
“I think it would behoove us to mandate a (berm) … not suggest to the developer, because that won’t happen, but mandate because that six-foot-high maximum would provide a little bit more relief,” Bales said.
City council will vote on whether or not to accept the zoning amendment at their next meeting on Feb. 9.
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