By Kevin Eigelbach
NKyTribune reporter
On Tuesday evening, a divided Villa Hills City Council approved a plan for a project that has also divided the community – development of the 115-acre St. Walburg Monastery property.
Villa Hills resident Steve Schlekter addresses the Villa Hills City Council on Tuesday about the development of the Walburg Monastery property (photo by Kevin Eigelbach).
By a 3 to 2 vote, the council approved an agreement with Edgewood-based Ashley Commercial Group to create a mixed-use, planned community that would include 493 homes, including a four-story luxury apartment building, 191 detached single-family homes and 63 single-family townhouses.
Hundreds of residents attended the council meeting, which was held in the cafeteria of River Ridge Elementary School, and as they had at the March 7 council meeting, they loudly voiced their disapproval for the project.
At one point, councilwoman Mary Koenig told the audience, “I was in eight-and-a-half hours of you all talking, and I never interrupted, and I would appreciate the same courtesy.”
Later in the meeting, Mayor Butch Callery gaveled for order and admonished the audience not to interrupt.
It is an issue residents feel passionate about.
About 2,000 of Villa Hills’ approximately 7,500 residents signed a petition against the project, which was presented at the Feb. 21 council meeting. Residents posted road signs about the project and created a website to collect signatures and rally opposition.
Most of the objections voiced at Tuesday’s meeting had to do with how the city would fund $1.3 million in traffic improvements that the development agreement would require. The development agreement might put the city on the hook for more than it could afford, resident Steve Schlekter said.
The improvements included a roundabout at the intersection of Collins and Amsterdam roads and sidewalks on the north side of Amsterdam Road.
The city has about $600,000 in unrestricted funds, Schlekter said, but has legal exposure from other issues, from the statewide pension crisis and from its agreement to provide police protection to Crescent Springs.
The city plans to fund the improvements by borrowing the money and paying it off through a tax increment financing district, or TIF. The district would collect increased tax revenues from the development and use them to pay for infrastructure related to the development.
The TIF will enable the city to take a portion of the property tax from the new development and use it to fix some of its existing traffic problems, City Manager Craig Bohman said. Those problems, the No. 1 complaint among city residents, are causing traffic congestion, higher rates of air pollution and higher rates of asthma, he said.
Many in the audience laughed at the asthma claim.
Since some of the improvements would be on state highways, some residents wanted the state to pay for them, but Bohman said that wasn’t likely to happen. It’s appropriate for the city to pay for them since most of the congestion is city traffic, he said, and it can be done so that only the residents of the new development pay for it.
“At the end of the day, the whole purpose of this development is to generate tax dollars to benefit you,” Bohman told the audience.
“We don’t want it,” someone shouted.
These signs at Collins and Amsterdam roads sum up the feelings of many Villa Hills residents in attendance at Thursday’s city council meeting. * Note- the meeting was originally planned for Wednesday, but was rescheduled to Thursday (photo by Mark Hansel)
Schlekter and other audience members wanted the council to get more information about the timing of the TIF revenue and the timing of the traffic improvements. Some council members agreed with them.
Councilman Scott Ringo made a motion to table a decision, and Councilman George Bruns voted for that motion. The issue was probably more important than anything else he’d done on the council, Bruns said, and he wanted to vote the right way.
But they were opposed by council members Koenig, Greg Kilburn and Gary Waugaman, who were ready to get the agreement done. Councilwoman Jennifer Vaden was absent.
Ashley Commercial officials were pleased with council’s decision, partner Jason Yeager said, and are eager to move forward on the project. They expected to complete the purchase of the property within 30 days of getting a construction permit from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, managing partner Bill Kreutzjans Jr. said.
He declined to say what price Ashley had agreed on with the sellers, the Benedictine Sisters of the St. Walburg Monastery.
As the Northern Kentucky Tribune previously reported, in 2012, the Sisters started the process of selling underused property to fund their retirement. In 2016, the city did a Villa Hills Area Study that focused on the property.
In other action on Tuesday, the council agreed to pay James Parsons of Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL in Cincinnati up to $15,000 plus supplies to help create the TIF associated with the Walburg development.
Contact the Northern Kentucky Tribune at news@nkytrib.com
