In The News

UDF approved at U.S. 42 and Fields Ertel

February 21, 2017  |  United Dairy Farmers
United Dairy Farmers

Cincinnati Enquirer

WEST CHESTER TWP. – A United Dairy Farmers gas station and convenience store will replace an El Rancho Grande planned for the corner of U.S. 42 and Fields-Ertel Road.

Trustees gave their approval to the change in plans this week, just six months after giving the restaurant the go-ahead on the 2.87-acre site.

This is the second major change to the project which originally called for a bank, office buildings and daycare center when it was approved in 2009.

Those plans as well as plans for the restaurant fell through, said Barb Wilson, township spokeswoman. The land remains vacant.

The new plan calls for a 5,749-square-foot store, with outdoor seating and eight fuel pumps.

Nearby neighbors did not want the restaurant approved, citing traffic concerns trying to enter or exit Winwood Drive at U.S. 42, just north of Fields-Ertel. Last month those same concerns were raised during a public hearing on the matter.

“This will generate less traffic than the two prior plans that were approved,’’ UDF attorney Tom Tepe said last month.

In approving the UDF, Lang said he too believed there would be less traffic with a UDF than a restaurant.

“From my perspective the El Rancho Grande was a traffic generator. People were going to go out of their way to go there,” Lang said.

“I see a convenience store more as a traffic receptacle. You have people who typically aren’t going to go out of their way to go to a convenience store. It’s something they stop at on their way.”

Trustee President Mark Welch suggested that installation of a roundabout at U.S. 42 and Winwood might be considered to slow down traffic.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/local/west-chester/2017/02/16/udf-approved-us-42-fields-ertel/97999814/