Clark County Board of Commissioners early this year approved a developer’s request to rezone 42 acres of land on the corner of Stine and Enon-Xenia roads in Mad River Twp. The developer, Hillside Creek Farms LLC, was proposing to build 160 single-family homes there. Under the agreement, the land would have been rezoned from an agricultural district and a rural residence district to a planned district residential, a necessary step for the creation of the housing development.
However, residents concerned about how the new homes would affect their community challenged the decision to rezone the land by requesting a referendum vote. About 75% voted to stop the rezoning while 24% were in favor of going forward with it, according to early, unofficial results from the Clark County Board of Elections.
After the measure failed, Wilt questioned the necessity of the $2.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding allocated in September for a stormwater improvement project in the Enon area now that the development project in Mad River Twp. will not happen.
But Clark County Engineer John Burr told commissioners that the stormwater project is needed to address longtime flooding in Enon, as well as flooding surrounding the Greenon school site. The project aims to replace storm sewers around Enon-Xenia Road and construct waterline infrastructure in that area.
“Even in spite of this, I think it still does address a lot of the flooding issues that are there, as far as with the roadway,” he said. “And at some point in the future, it allows the connections to fix other problems.”
Kathleen Baber spearheaded the movement to file petitions for the referendum in Mad River Twp. A few major concerns that community members have concerning the housing development project deals with stormwater drainage, the overall density of the proposed development and increased traffic to the area that would result from the new housing, she said.
Their concerns stem from drainage issues created by previous developments in the area, she said.
Baber was pleased that voters rejected the proposed development.
“It was really gratifying to see how big the margin was,” she said Wednesday.
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