Deadline days away to get new home issue on Miamisburg ballot

Residents opposed to Miamisburg’s rezoning of 86 acres for 197 new homes have a little more than a week to gather enough signatures to allow voters to decide the issue.

About 2,165 valid petition signatures are needed to have the Benner Road zoning change approved by Miamisburg City Council last month placed on the ballot this fall.

Supporters of the referendum effort fear the Deer Valley subdivision plan by Oberer Development and Ryan Homes. Among other issues, they say it will create dangerous traffic conditions on an inadequate road that intersects with Miamisburg Springboro Road, a main artery to the Austin interchange, while squeezing out residents and wildlife who have lived there for generations.

EARLIER: Rezoning plan advances for 197 homes in Miamisburg

“We’re not trying to stop development,” said Kimm Mote, who is helping in the petition push. “We believe the owners of the land have a right to sell it. We believe developers have the right to develop. However, the city can control how it is developed. And they should.”

City council unanimously voted to adopt the planning commission’s recommendation to change the zoning on the Benner land in a rural area south of the Mound Business Park and west of Pipestone Golf Club from agricultural to planned residential.

Signers of the petition “are requesting the question of zoning be placed on the ballot for citizen(s) and to stop this development as currently presented,” the document states.

Supporters of the ballot proposal have 30 days from city council’s June 18 vote to file petitions with the Montgomery County Board of Elections. At least 15 percent of those registered voters in the last gubernatorial election (2,163 signatures) will be needed to get the issue on the ballot, according to the Miamisburg city charter.

“I don’t’ know if we’ll get it or not,” Mote said, “but we’ve got to try.”

RELATED: Builders plan 300-plus homes near Miamisburg growth area

Deer Valley is one of two proposals for homes in Miamisburg that could bring more than 300 new units to the city. The other, Courseview at Pipestone, calls for rezoning 42 acres off Miamisburg Springboro Road to build 127 new homes. That rezoning may go before council this month.

In the Deer Valley case, Mote said she was disappointed that “we got zero response” from council after raising “legitimate concerns.” But Miamisburg Vice Mayor Sarah Clark last month after the vote acknowledged those concerns and thanked those who spoke out.

Miamisburg City Manager Keith Johnson said “council took a strong look” at the Deer Valley plan, which involves property designated as single-family on the city’s land use plan since 1985. He said that included working for several months with the developer, the planning commission and adopting a series of conditions recommended by that panel.

RELATED: Miamisburg annexation for new homes near Austin Landing moves forward

Those conditions cover a variety of areas relating to: road improvements to Benner; a traffic study; right of way from Benner; storm water management; and landscaping, lighting, construction dust, and buffering.

This is the second time the Benner Road property was rezoned for new homes, Johnson said. The first came about a decade ago before the housing market went bust and a project never went forward, causing the zoning change to lapse, Johnson said.

The current Deer Valley plan calls for “a better housing product” with “less density and more open space,” he said.

RELATED: Miami Twp. OKs annexation deal with Miamisburg for 41 acres near I-75


BY THE NUMBERS

197 — new homes proposed for the Deer Valley development in Miamisburg

2,163 — number of signatures opponents need to get the issue on the ballot

86 — number of acres along Benner Road where new houses would be built

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