Research foundation puts Beavercreek acreage up for sale

The Miami Valley Research Foundation has sold 24 acres at the intersection of Grange Hall and Shakertown roads and is marketing the remaining 92 acres that abuts the Woodhaven and Autumn Springs neighborhoods.

Proceeds from the sale of the land will be used for improvements to the nonprofit foundation’s Miami Valley Research Park in Kettering.

But the potential sale of the addition acres leaves some questions for the city about the kind of development that eventually will go at that location. Jeff McGrath, city planning director, raised the issue at a recent council meeting.

“I wanted to take this opportunity to have a general discussion about some of the factors that need to be considered when working with developers,” he said. McGrath added that he wanted to know what direction council wanted to go when considering development.

Under the current land use plan, the area is set aside for low-density housing. Putting 200 homes on the remaining property would “need significant road improvements,” he said.

In addition, low-density housing adds financial pressures on the schools because the property taxes do not cover the cost of educating the new students.

Any developer would be responsible for improving Grange Hall and Shakertown to handle the additional traffic. “That’s what’s holding any project at bay. It’s a challenging site,” McGrath said.

Council member Brian Jarvis, who lives near the site, said neighbors have concerns about traffic through their neighborhood.

“I think there really needs to be some buffering between any new development and Autumn Springs,” he said.

Housing, however, may not end up on the site, said Bruce Pearson, CEO of the Kettering research park.

“We’ve had some level of interest, particularly around the general concept of continuing care and retirement communities,” Pearson said.“We would be very sensitive to the surrounding residential communities. Any buyer would have that same level of concern.”

Mayor Vicki Giambrone said council needs to have a conversation with the research foundation, which owns more than 580 acres in the city. Giambrone asked whether public funds were used by the foundation originally to purchase the land and whether that would be a factor in any sale of land.

Pearson said the land originally was owned by the state and used as a mental health facility and later a work farm. When the foundation was formed in 1980, the state gave the foundation the 675 acres in Kettering and Beavercreek for a university-related research park.

The foundation was formed after the region lost more than 50,000 jobs in the 1970s. The intent was to focus on the technology sector of the local economy.

According to Pearson, the foundation’s board of directors decided in late 2010-early 2011 “that the land along Shakertown and Grange Hall was not critical to the overall development of the research park,” Pearson said.

“We will take the proceeds to develop other parts of the park to stimulate the local economy,” he said.

The 24 acres was purchased by the Bethel Christian Assembly of God Church for $600,000 in December, according to the Greene County Auditor’s Office. The church plans to build a new church on the site at some time in the future, McGrath said.

“Our capital plan has the proceeds going to improve utilities and road access in the park, and to seed marketing and other efforts to promote the area,” Pearson said.

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