Airport looks to tighten up zoning
Officials: Securing 321 acres for aviation, business important.
MIAMI TWP. — Stronger zoning rules at Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport will help preserve its future as an aviation hub and help drive future business growth in southern Montgomery County, local officials say.
Miami Twp. trustees are set Tuesday night to vote on a zoning district covering 321 acres near Austin Boulevard and Ohio 741 at the general aviation site that borders Springboro and Washington Twp. The township’s zoning commission voted last month to recommend the plan.
The zoning district would cover most of the land within the 527acre airport site, which is owned by the city of Dayton but located in Miami Twp.
The district would divide the 321 acres into three areas. One sector would comprise the runway, taxiway and hangars on the airport’s west side, a second sector would include parcels in the northwest corner and southwest property near the Warren County line and the third sector would be the airport’s eastern property, which is largely undeveloped.
“We’re putting in zoning guidelines that are going to protect the long-term use of the airport for aviation purposes,” said city of Dayton Director of Aviation Terry Slaybaugh. “If we have good zoning around the airport, it’s not going to conflict with the property as an airport for aviation.”
Meanwhile, studies and Dayton records indicate the airport — home to 320 jobs — is ripe for more employment growth that is both aviation- and nonaviation-related.
“Future development of an industrial area to the east is anticipated to accommodate airport manufacturing uses, high-tech industrial uses, and/or corporate office uses,” those records show.
Kyle Hinkelman, deputy director of community development for the township, said tighter development guidelines are key to a plan that will “allow the airport and Miami Twp. to continue to evolve toward what we’ve done in the Austin Center area.”
Austin Center is a developing district that straddles both sides of Interstate 75 and includes Austin Landing, a mixed retail center that is home to more than
2,000 jobs. Austin Landing is just across the road from the Dayton-Wright Brothers Airport.
Stronger signage and landscape, lighting and design standards were approved several years ago for Austin Center in anticipation of the growth that occurred when the Austin Boulevard interchange opened at I-75. The zoning proposal establishes a similar bar for the type of development that can occur around the airport.
The current zoning for the airport makes it “a fairly unrestricted district,” giving the township less control over what development can occur there, Hinkelman said.
Zoning under the proposal would change from “airport district” to “planned mixed use,” according to the zoning documents.
The rezoning effort follows a pair of studies focusing on best ways to use land around the airport, which has seen more than $20 million in private and public investment since 2014.
It also follows federal approval of the airport’s layout plan, which includes a 500-foot runway extension proposal.
The zoning district is unrelated to the runway extension plan and involves only property inside the general boundary of the airport, according to the township.
The six properties proposed for rezoning range in size from 12 to 118.9 acres, according to Dayton records.