A month after the debate turned into a shouting match, a proposed subdivision in Middleton Township saw a
comparatively smooth county approval Tuesday.
Wood County Planning Commission members gave a conditional recommendation to OK the Village at River Bend
Lakes, a slimmed down plan tweaked after legal questions and density concerns surrounded a previous
design.
McCarthy Builders opted to remove 20 percent of the homes it had proposed, rather than wait for a legal
opinion from the prosecutor’s office on whether it could use a variance given by the township in 2002 to
previous owners of the project that allowed a tight configuration.
The new plan has 300 lots on 122 acres, set to be built in 13 phases. The previous design listed a total
of 375 homes.
"It is essentially a new subdivision that’s adjacent to the existing River Bend subdivision,"
said Dave Steiner, planning commission director.
"It’s not going to be as dense as we saw in December."
The size of the effort led Middleton Township Trustee Penny Getz to classify it as a "trailer
park" at the December meeting. The developer, Brian McCarthy, and representatives defended their
plans and said people in the existing River Bend neighborhood don’t feel that way.
Getz was not present Tuesday, but fellow Trustee Fred Vetter and Jeff Ford, the township’s zoning
inspector, were there to question certain aspects of the proposal.
A significant concern aside from density is traffic in and out of the subdivision, which has one main
point of access off Roachton Road.
The county commission gave its approval contingent on the results of a traffic study, which may show the
need for turn lanes on Roachton or additional access.
"That’s definitely something that’s going to need to be done there at Roachton Road given the amount
of density we’re talking about," Steiner said.
George Oravecz, consulting engineer for the developer, said the study would be done.
Ford maintained that the density was "about the same" as the previous plan. Vetter asked
whether the entrance would be reconfigured if it was shown by the traffic study to be not sufficient.
"If that’s what the traffic study says, that’s what we’ll do," Oravecz said.
In other business Tuesday, the commission recommended that Troy Township approve a zoning change of 31
acres near the Home Depot distribution center currently being built.
Red Bug LLC wants to relocate its operation to the site on the east side of Pemberville Road, south of
U.S. 20. Doing so would be best facilitated by a switch from Commercial (C-1) zoning to Planned Unit
Development (B-PUD), Steiner said.
Discussion centered around access to the property, which would come via a temporary drive which could
eventually be replaced with a road if other companies decided to purchase locations there.
Engineer Ray Huber had concerns about adding more traffic to an area already set to see many trucks, with
the Home Depot center across the road and a truck repair business to the north.
Separately, commission members heard of changes to the state’s Community Development Block Grant Program.
In addition to a new software coming to help rank projects submitted by Wood County communities, the
selection of projects may take place in May instead of June this year, Steiner said.
