Rezoning new homes in Sugarcreek approved

HPA plans to build 187 homes on 66 acres between Darst, Swigart.

Developer can proceed with a plan to build nearly 200 homes in Sugarcreek Twp. after trustees approved the rezoning request.

A Cincinnati-based developer can proceed with a plan to build nearly 200 homes in Sugarcreek Twp. after trustees approved the rezoning request Monday night.

HPA Development Group Inc. plans to build 187 homes on approximately 66 acres between Darst and Swigart roads, which lies adjacent to the township’s border with the city of Beavercreek and is known as the Ralph D. Black Property.

“This was a very difficult decision for the trustees,” Sugarcreek Twp. Administrator Barry Tiffany said of the trustees’ decision to allow the development to move forward. “Everybody wants to be here. We get why they want to be here. We want to preserve everything nice that we can about this community that makes everybody want to be here.”

HPA’s plans have been changed to include two fewer homes than what was originally submitted. Thirty percent of the property is to be preserved as green space, with single-, two-story and patiostyle homes to be built on the rest, ranging in price from $325,000 to $400,000.

If the trustees had not approved the rezoning request, the property more than likely would have been annexed into Beavercreek, probably at a higher density, Tiffany said.

Sugarcreek residents are seeing a lot of new housing pop up in various parts of the township, including on Little Sugarcreek Road and Feedwire Road. In addition to the subdivision planned by HPA, a plan for new homes on Wilmington-Dayton Road by Oberer Land Developers is going through preliminary approvals.

Sugarcreek Twp. planning and zoning commissioners were to consider Oberer’s request for rezoning at a meeting Tuesday night.

One of the man concerns with new developments among residents is increased traffic congestion. Resident Jonathan Winkler rallied neighbors to speak out against HPA’s plans. Winkler has said there’s already been a significant increase in traffic, particularly on Wagner Road which provides an alternative route to The Greene and the city of Kettering.

Winkler said he’s “not convinced that the traffic has been adequately examined.

“The traffic study, with the additional load, didn’t incorporate new developments on Little Sugarcreek and Feedwire. It’s like inviting guests to a house party without accounting for additional guests.”

Tiffany said keeping the proposed development within the township lessens the threat of annexation for future developments on nearby properties.

“If we allow them to develop, maybe at a higher density those cities will give them, it builds kind of a border that cities can’t cross over,” Tiffany said. “The property on which HPA wants to build was one of those open spots, one of those pieces of the puzzle . ... Now that it develops, it kind of closes that area off so Beavercreek isn’t the threat tomorrow that it was today.”

The property owners Janice Dunlap and her son Kevin and a representative of HPA could not be reached for comments.