City Council rejects Ryan Homes development

The developer proposed building 98 new homes on 33 acres, which residents considered too dense.

City Council has rejected Ryan Homes proposal for a 98-home development on 33 acres between the Deer Run and Pleasant Hill subdivisions after fierce opposition from residents.

“It was always a very difficult development,” Councilman John Beals said, echoing residents’ concerns about increased traffic through the existing neighborhood and onto Alex Bell Road. Residents said they were also concerned about the possibility of flooding and storm damage on land with a steep slope and the compatibility of the development with existing homes.

Ryan Homes first approached the city of Centerville with development plans nearly one year ago.

In 2014, the city approved a proposal to build 85 single-family homes on the property but the developer came back in the spring of 2015 with a more “economically feasible” plan to build 87 duplexes, for a total of 174 units on the property.

“It seems like every time they come back, they come back with a proposal for more homes,” said Richard Yager, one of nearly a hundred residents to turn out to oppose the project at a public hearing Monday night. “It’s greed.”

This latest proposal is Ryan Homes’ third.

The plans, which called for 98 single-family homes on .305 acres each, would have put two to three houses on the same amount of land that just one sits on in the existing Pleasant Hill neighborhood off of Zengel Drive.

“It’s too much,” Yager said.

Council made the unanimous decision to reject the project following a nearly five-hour meeting where residents filled council chambers before spilling across the street to the police training center to watch the meeting play out on TV screens.

In June, the city planning commission voted 4-2 to recommend the developer’s preliminary plans for “cottage style” homes priced from $280,000 to $300,000.

However, city planner Andrew Rodney said Tuesday that council was not convinced Ryan Homes’ plans met standards laid out in Centerville’s zoning ordinance.

Mark Locke, who has represented Ryan Homes’ throughout the application process, was unable to comment on council’s decision Tuesday due to corporate policy.

“Something new may come forward when the dust settles from this particular situation,” Rodney said, but there is no way of knowing at this juncture.

About the Author