Part of Birch III development stalled
By Lauren Heaton
The Birch III residential development off of Glen
View Road has taken longer than expected to sell its 40 lots, Village
Planning Commission members said during their meeting Monday, July 9.
They and several neighbors who live adjacent to the plat expressed concern
and disappointment during the meeting that in the past year, the vacant
properties have not been maintained to the standard its developers agreed
to when they won approval for their project two years ago.
Section 2 of the Birch III development came before plan board for reapproval
on Monday because the Village’s approval in December 2005 had
expired before the performance bond for section 2 could be secured.
Though construction bonds for section 2 are now in place, plan board
had concerns that, before they reapprove the final plan for section
2, the developers of the property need to complete the construction
of the plat as indicated in their original plan.
Specifically, plan board reapproved the final plan for section 2 at
Monday’s meeting on the condition that Purple Sage LLC, the developer
of the plat, complete six items on a list of about 40 improvements still
to be completed before Village Council considers final approval of that
section at its meetings on July 16 and Aug. 6. The six items were to
reconstruct the plat’s silt dikes and fencing, maintain vegetation
along the bicycle path, mow, grade and seed the plat, complete some
sidewalks, repair damage to Glen View Road, and clear the streets of
rubble and debris. Council will also consider extending the $500,000
performance bond for the entire plat, which expires this month, for
another six months to give the developers time to complete all 40 construction
items, including paving the roads, constructing sidewalks, regrading
swales and plugging a water valve on Hyde Road.
Section 2 concerns 2.99 acres on the eastern end of the property with
a detention pond, a bike path and five buildable lots. Of the 40 total
lots on sections 1 and 2 of Birch III, three homes have been built.
No one representing Purple Sage was present at Monday’s meeting.
But during the public hearing portion, neighbors of the plat voiced
frustration about the neglect the property has suffered since its original
owners, Doug Eastham and Mark Bertke, dissolved their partnership in
July 2006. Donna and Harry Lipsitt, who purchased the plat’s first
home and moved there last year, submitted a letter to plan board complaining
about uncontrolled weeds, unswept streets, piles of debris, and poor
general maintenance of the neighborhood.
“The building situation has been a total nightmare for the past
year,” Donna Lipsitt said on Monday. The Lipsitts also had concerns
about the fact that Purple Sage’s ownership had changed but that
the public had no way of knowing who the legal owners are because Bertke,
who now identifies himself as the development’s manager, will
not disclose that information. Eastham said in an interview in May that
he is no longer part of the business, and Bertke denied current ownership
of the LLC. In a related interview in May, Chuck Crabill, who is a builder
for SugarTree Homes, said he is one of Purple Sage’s owners.
During plan board’s meeting on Monday, other neighbors who live
adjacent to Birch III complained of similar issues regarding its lack
of maintenance. Steve McColaugh and Kate LeVesconte said the developers
had dug into a corner of their property and had allowed construction
debris to blow over into their gardens. Jerry Sutton said that the developers
had never repaired damage they had done to a previously existing road,
and JoAnn Mahle was concerned about the effectiveness of the new drainage
pipes at the base of the plat’s detention pond, which recently
had to be replaced due to improper installation.
In other plan board business:
• Martin Kim, director of the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission,
gave a presentation during plan board’s meeting about a comprehensive
regional planning effort the MVRPC is attempting to establish for Montgomery,
Miami and Greene Counties. MVRPC’s aim to develop a planning guide
that would allow the three-county region to compete economically with
bigger areas, such as Columbus, is one that plan board members may consider
folding into its current revision of the Village Comprehensive Plan.
The plan Kim talked about would involve 30 to 40 hours of the Village’s
and Yellow Springs community’s time over the next four years to
participate with the MVRPC in data gathering, comparing future population
and land use scenarios and developing a plan to maximize efficiency
of land use, transportation and environmental planning in the region.
Trends show that as population in this area has decreased, land used
for commercial and residential purposes has increased, Kim said. The
goal of a shared regional land use plan would be to establish a more
efficient and less costly model for the future of the region.
Contact: lheaton@ysnews.com
