June 23, 2005

Map of Birch III, site of Glenwood Springs, a 40-home development proposed by Purple Sage, and the 5-acre parcel the company will donate to the Glen Helen Association.

By Robert Mihalek

Village Council on Monday approved the first of two votes needed to approve the first phase of a new subdivision on the 20.5-acre Birch III property.

The first phase of the project, which is being developed by Purple Sage, LLC, would consist of 35 homes and a half-acre stormwater detention basin. The detention pond will not be built on an additional five-acre property that Purple Sage acquired when it purchased Birch III from Antioch University in April.

At its meeting on June 20, Council voted 4–0 to pass the first reading of an ordinance approving a final plat plan for the first phase of the subdivision. The ordinance would approve how Purple Sage uses the land and lays out the houses within Birch III, Village Manager Rob Hillard said after the meeting.

Because Council must wait 30 days between the ordinance’s first and second readings, Council has tentatively scheduled a second reading and public hearing on the ordinance at its Aug. 1 meeting.

Council president Tony Arnett abstained from the vote on Monday and did not participate in Council’s discussion on the subdivision proposal. Arnett is also the president of the Glen Helen Association, to which Purple Sage wants to donate the additional five-acre parcel.

As the head of the GHA, Arnett had been discussing with Purple Sage the five-acre parcel. The association’s board had agreed in May that it would be interested in acquiring the property from Purple Sage, Arnett said last week.

During Council’s meeting Monday, Doug Eastham, one of the owners of Purple Sage, said that his company and the GHA were “going forward” with the donation process, though he said he did not want to comment further on the deal. He said that he could not say how long it would take to work out the deal.

Council’s vote on the development project on Birch III came almost a month after the Village Planning Commission agreed to recommend that Council grant final approval to the project’s first phase, or section.

Eastham and Mark Bertke, who also runs Purple Sage, declined to comment on the subdivision proposal at the meeting this week, though Eastham thanked Council for considering their request and thanked villagers for their comments on the development.

The first phase of the development, which will be called Glenwood Springs, would be built on 17.5 acres of Birch III. The second section, which the Planning Commission and Council would have to approve later, includes five homes on three acres.

The development is zoned Residence A, which allows for medium-density, single-family dwellings on lots that are at least 75 feet wide and are a total of 10,000 square feet.

The development’s “protective covenants and restrictions” state that Glenwood Springs would include houses no taller than two and a half stories. Houses that are one story tall would be at least 1,800 square feet in size, and houses with more than one story would be at least 2,200 square feet, documents submitted to the Village by Purple Sage state. Property owners could build garages that hold two to four vehicles.

All owners of lots in Glenwood Springs would be responsible for installing sidewalks, the development documents state. Property owners would be prohibited from subdividing their lots “for additional residential purposes,” the covenants and restrictions say.

Residents of Glenwood Springs would form the H. T. Birch III Homeowners Association, which, among other things, would be responsible for maintaining the development’s stormwater detention basin. John Eastman, the chief environmental engineer with LJB Inc. of Dayton, which has an engineering contract with the Village, has said that the detention basin’s calculations show that the pond will retain a 100-year storm.

Bruce Rickenbach, who serves as Council’s representative on the Planning Commission, said during the meeting Monday that the Village has the right to maintain the basin if the homeowners association fails to do so.

Glenwood Springs would include two new roads, one off Stewart Street and one off Glen View Road.

As he had at a Planning Commission meeting last month, Jerry Sutton, who lives on Glen View Road, urged the Village to require Purple Sage to build a third access road into the development, by extending Birch Street into Glenwood Springs. He said that traffic would be better served if it could travel on Birch Street and connect to Corry Street.

Rickenbach noted that the Planning Commission was satisfied with the developers’ “current arrangements of streets” for Glenwood Springs. However, he said, plan board members said they “reserved the right” to ask that Birch Street be extended into the development if traffic studies dictate such action.

He also said that Purple Sage has indicated that the development plans include traffic calming measures designed to limit traffic traveling straight through Glenwood Springs.

Purple Sage’s announcement that it would donate the disputed five-acre parcel to the Glen Helen Association averted a controversy over Antioch’s sale of that land. Antioch purchased that property in 1964 using funds donated by the Vernay Foundation. A letter from the foundation says that the property “upon acquisition by the College shall become a part of Glen Helen and shall be administered by the director of the Glen Helen Department of the College in conformity with and as part of” the Glen. A conservation easement was also placed on the five-acre property.

Bertke told the News last week that his company based its decision to donate the five acres on the Vernay Foundation’s intent for the land as well as the community’s perception for how the property should be used.