“This general area contains perhaps the most desirable remaining tracts of land for development within Miami County,” a project overview stated.
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With possibilities of development anticipated, the proposal said the county commission and department of development recognize the need to “focus strategically on this area” including at the interchange.
“What we’d like to see is the proper use of that strip through there. It is one of the last exits on the interstate that hasn’t been developed,” county Commission President Jack Evans said of the Exit 78 area. “We want to make sure it is properly developed to get the best use possible out of it.”
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Richard Osgood, the county’s new development director, said the study area is primarily a sector identified in the county’s 2006 comprehensive plan as a special planning area because of the multiple types of development that might be appropriate for this area. The area was extended to the west from Experiment Farm Road to Washington Road for the study.
The Experiment Farm Road/Farrington Road area was the proposed site for a surface mining operation. The application for a conditional use permit was withdrawn just before an October public hearing before the county board of zoning appeals. The application could be refiled after one year.
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County Commissioner John “Bud” O’Brien, who is the commission representative on the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, said the commissioners were approached by Dan Suerdieck, county planning and zoning manager, about a study before the surfacing mining proposal. When the petition was filed, the study was put on hold for a time before the commission decided recently to move forward with hiring consultants.
“We wanted to look at the entire area because of the proximity of two different exits to Interstate 75 (Exit 78 and the next exit south at Ohio 41 in Troy),” O’Brien said.
The firm hired to do the study would be charged with identifying unique corridor characteristics, required infrastructure improvements for development, design concepts and marketing plans and zoning or other requirements to carry out any plan.
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Development leaders in Troy and Piqua are aware of the planned study, O’Brien said.
“Our goal is to have marketable materials that are effectively shovel ready development plans. It is not just a planning study,” Osgood said.
The work will include reaching out to all property owners. “We want them fully engaged in the process as much as possible, to take some level of ownership because it is their land that is involved,” Osgood said.
When the public input portion of the work would be held has not been determined, but probably would be in early fall versus the busy summer months, he said. The public involvement meetings would focus primarily on land uses.
Contact this contributing writer at nancykburr@aol.com
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