A small band of opposition to a proposed regional mall near Monroe has grown into the largest public comment ever received by the state's transportation funding committee.
More than 300 letters, 400 e-mails and 700 postcards opposing the mall and the related $22 million highway interchange have been received by the Transportation Review Advisory Committee (TRAC), a nine-member board created three years ago to independently select projects for state transportation funding.
"I have not seen anything like this before," said TRAC Coordinator Michael Cull, who's worked for TRAC since it was created.
In November, developers and the city of Monroe asked the state to pay for half of the $22 million interchange, which was required by Michigan-based mall developer Taubman and Company in order to build a regional mall in Monroe. In December, TRAC gave the Kyles Station interchange Tier II status, meaning it won't receive funding this year but is on the path to eventual funding pending an interchange justification study.
Mall/interchange opponents and supporters had until April 15 to send comments to TRAC.
Monroe city officials welcome the possible new tax base, especially because the several hundred acres of land in question has been slated for industrial development for 40 years but has never been more than a finalist for steel, chemical and automobile plants.
Organizations from northern Kentucky to central Ohio — most of which are environmental or conservation groups — have opposed the mall and interchange. Besides expressing concerns about traffic and environmental consequences, many of them see the $11 million request to the state as an inappropriate tax-funded subsidy for a mall within 20 minutes of several other malls, some of which are struggling. Thirty-three such organizations signed an April 12 letter expressing their views, which was sent to TRAC.
The three-member Warren County Commission opposes the mall but supports the interchange because of long-term transportation needs. However, Commissioner Pat South said the mall would provide less pollution than industry. Cincinnati City Council and the city's planning commission oppose both the mall and the interchange, as do the cities of Trotwood and New Lebanon.
TRAC will meet May 11 to vote to finalize this year's list of projects. Either way, the Kyles Station interchange proposal won't receive any money this year, said Cull, who doesn't expect any big changes in TRAC's five-year funding plan.
The level of opposition to the interchange could easily get TRAC's attention, however, and lead to some sort of change on the Kyles Station interchange.
"They don't want to fund proposals that go through places that are opposed to them," Cull said.
TRAC uses 13 criteria for selecting projects costing $5 million or more, including:
· How the project affects transportation efficiency, effectiveness and safety;
· If it aids economic development;
· How well it connects to other forms of transportation;
· The amount of non-ODOT funding pledged for the project.
In response to the opposition's criticisms, Leonard Robinson, part-owner of the Corridor 75 Park, the land where the mall would be built, sent a four-page letter to TRAC. Robinson likened the mall opposition to Chicken Little.
"Life as we know it will not be decimated when the Kyles Station Road interchange is built ...," he wrote.
Robinson wrote that a new mall would increase competition in the area, which would provide consumers better selection and prices. He also discounted concerns about the area's aquifer, saying that the heavy clay soil underground doesn't allow water to recharge the aquifer. He acknowledged the need for green space but wrote the whole sprawl issue is "debatable."
"People will migrate where they want to live," he wrote.
The existing Ohio Route 63 interchange, located one mile north of the Kyles Station Road, needs help handling the area's business and residential traffic, Robinson wrote. Even with the planned improvements to the existing interchange, it won't be able to handle the area's traffic in 10 years, he wrote.
The letter included four more pages of signatures — 71 total — under a petition that mentioned the Kyles Station interchange but not the mall.
