Cincinnati Mills / Forest Fair Mall Re-Development Issue

By Jeffrey AndersonIssues, Main, Mall
Attention Neighbors – especially Beacon Hills!
You may have starting hearing about progress by Forest Park and Fairfield redeveloping the Forest Fair / Cincinnati Mills mall… Wednesday evening I attended Fairfield’s Planning meeting where they rezoned their part of the Commercial to General Industrial uses.

 

Take look at the size of those buildings – you can see the outline of current buildings on the plan – several Bass Pro shops could fit in each proposed new building!     

Lots of detail and things to be determined but what causes me great alarm is not the Fairfield portion of the development but Forest Park – the proposed plan has two very large industrial buildings *right up against* the homes we have. Take a look at the photo (the red circle is Bridgeport in Beacon Hills.)

 

The proposed plan has buildings even closer, over the current parking lot and limited screening of components because that border is considered the properties ‘rear yard’.

What I find shocking is the lack of concern in the planning to date putting industry right up against our homes. The plan as of last week was to maintain the ‘extensive vegetation’ on that fence and ‘maybe’ rebuild part of the fence. In the meeting Fairfield found their institutional / residential uses had the largest mounds in the entire township. The Highway has better screening!
Our concerns were heard by Fairfield who confirmed their residents had substantial dirt mounds and setbacks to protect their residents but they could only defer to Forest Park for anything that would affect us.

Take a look at what is being called ‘extensive vegetation’

 

Mayor Hawkins spoke at a recent joint hearing expressing concern and I can say the Fairfield Vice Mayor at the hearing tonight reinforced the concerns – but the reality is that will take more voices at the Forest Park hearings coming up 2/17 and 3/3 to have any sort of impact.

I spoke with the developer briefly tonight, but the community should know that the time to speak on this is coming up soon and the vibe I got tonight was if Forest Park won’t push for it we will feel some very real impacts, because right now we are a total afterthought.

There is not even commitment that the basic fence will be repaired much less additional screening, noise control, lighting limitations or security requirements!

Anyone looking for more frequent updates and if you are on Facebook I encourage you to join the Springdale Community Group.  Feel free to tag me in any questions over there too, I try to keep up with it as much as possible.

What do you think?  Let your elected officials know!

email and phone numbers of all your City Council members are online – https://www.springdale.org/city-council/page/meet-your-city-council

and

City Administration as well –
https://www.springdale.org/mayor-clerk-council

or

Connect with your Neighbors –

https://www.facebook.com/groups/333111242219243

Related Links

Past Minutes and Agendas: https://www.springdale.org/meetings/recent
Upcoming meetings: https://www.springdale.org/meetings
Request Public Records: https://www.springdale.org/living-springdale/page/public-records-access

 

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