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Peters Township residents voice opposition to zoning changes

By Jon Andreassi staff Writer jandreassi@observer-Reporter.Com 3 min read
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While Peters Township council goes through the motions of bringing up a zoning ordinance for another vote after it failed earlier this year, residents turned out to speak against it.

A public hearing on the ordinance was held Monday night, with a final vote expected at council’s Aug. 8 meeting. If passed, the ordinance would eliminate the upper limit of 36 units in an apartment building, exclusively in the mixed-use activity center district in southwest Peters Township.

It also would reduce the maximum floor area ratio, the size of a building’s floor area in relation to the size of the parcel of land, from 1 to 0.85, and eliminate the requirement that 50% of required parking spaces for new multi-family developments be covered on three sides.

The parking amendment in the ordinance applies to all of Peters, not only the mixed-use district.

The ordinance came about following plans from Cincinnati-based real estate developer Al. Neyer to purchase a 12-acre lot at 259 Galley Road for an upscale apartment complex. The parcel is located behind Millers Ace Hardware along Route 19.

Representatives from Al. Neyer were at the hearing and argued their development could be a boon for Peters.

Patrick Byrne, a manager at Al. Neyer, said the planned 250 units would be split between two buildings, if the ordinance goes through.

“It removes the forced design of a dated garden style development. That’s why it’s important to us as a developer. We feel we can deliver a much higher quality product that fits with contemporary trends and matches comparable luxury, multi-family suburban projects,” Byrne said.

Bryne also argued the apartments would attract young professionals to the Peters Township area.

However, residents in attendance were not buying the pitch.

Many residents shared the same concerns, such as the effect the development would have on traffic and changing the zoning code to suit the needs of a single developer.

Adam Kennedy questioned if there would be much demand among the demographic of “young professionals” that Al. Neyer is trying to reach.

“We talked about young professionals, but we’re kind of far away from the city, and we’re also not very close to the T station or any other rapid transit from the standpoint,” Kennedy said.

Former Peters council member Monica Merrell also voiced opposition to the ordinance. She noted that Al. Neyer does not face a particular hardship, the usual reason a zoning variance would be granted.

“They can certainly reduce the density by just eliminating some of the apartments,” Merrell said.

She added that the apartment complex would cause traffic issues on the already busy Galley Road.

“We have issues with traffic already on roads. We have two-lane roads here in the township, and these changes will only exacerbate that,” Merrell said.

The ordinance originally failed in a 3-3 vote at a May council meeting. Council member Matt Rost was absent from that meeting. Council chose to send the ordinance back through the process to hopefully take a vote with all seven members present.

Council member Robert Lewis, who originally voted against the ordinance, was not swayed by Monday’s hearing.

“The scale of these buildings is not in the character that I believe belongs to Peters Township. I fought The Waters … I would like to see a greater reduction in the floor area ratio. That would tend to reduce the scale of the building as it would dominate the site,” Lewis said.

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