The above plan show the most recent plan for the Ewing Meadows development Ryan Homes hopes to build on Boerger Road and Route 38. The application was tabled at Monday night’s Marysville City Council meeting until officials can discuss the funding of a project to move the intersection of Routes 38 and 736 slightly south.
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Council again tabled an application Monday night for a new housing development on Boerger Road and Route 38 until the city can discuss moving the intersection of Routes 38 and 736.
The planned unit development (PUD) application is for a 68-acre parcel of land on Boerger Road and Route 38. The developer, Ryan Homes, hopes to put a 182-unit housing development on the land.
There have been several hang ups during the application process, including concerns about disruption to neighboring properties and the project’s possible impact on local traffic.
At a council meeting last month, city officials reported the results of a traffic study in the area that concluded that while the development would certainly increase traffic, it wouldn’t be enough to cause any significant problems.
Between that meeting and Monday, Ryan Homes’ Gary Smith spoke with the owners of some of the adjacent properties to the immediate southwest of the project.
“We were able to answer a lot of questions,” he said. “I don’t think we were able to convince anybody to get excited about developing the property next to them, but we were able to make some concessions.”
Some of those include the prohibition of garden sheds on single-family plots and fences on properties that border those neighboring plots.
Dave Gibson, the owner of the easternmost property in question, expressed concern about the possibility of two-and-a-half-story homes being built that could be seen over the tree line. Smith assured him that Ryan Homes doesn’t build those types of homes, though the plan’s text said otherwise. He said he’d corrected the text to reflect that.
This is in addition to concessions made in earlier meetings this year, including moving a bike path on the property away from the road, and extending one of the roads inside the development to better serve emergency responders.
“We really do feel like we’ve put together a good plan,” Smith said.
Councilperson Nevin Taylor asked if the applicant could remove the two homes on either side of the development’s Boerger Road entrance. He said taking those plots out would improve visibility when pulling out. Smith said while the map doesn’t show it, there’s a significant buffer between those homes and the road.
Councilperson Mark Reams noted that in parts of the plan, the transition from low density to rural is too abrupt. He asked if the applicant could fix that problem in any way.
“We’re at the point now where we’ve just dropped so much from this development,” Smith said. “We’ve done everything else that we can.”
Smith expressed frustration at the number of tweaks Ryan Homes has had to make since the Ewing Meadows plan reached council.
“I can maybe count on one hand the number of times I’ve had a unanimous recommendation from a planning commission and gotten this much trouble from city council,” Smith said. “Is this normal? Do they normally have this kind of disagreement?”
While all council members commended the applicant’s willingness to work with council, some still had concerns. Tracy Richardson said she wasn’t comfortable with the amount of development the council has approved lately.
“The way we’re moving forward as a community is too quick in development,” she said.
She said she’d like the city to revisit its plans for infrastructure and development before voting for any more housing developments.
Planning Commission member Donald Boerger came before council during public comment and agreed with Richardson, saying “growth for the sake of growth is like a cancer.” He said he hopes the city will consider its planning codes more in the future.
Mayor J.R. Rausch immediately noted that Boerger was on the planning commission that unanimously voted for the application.
“If you’re that passionate about it, vote against it,” Rausch said.
Councilperson Henk Berbee said his worry stems from locking a future council into a position that would force them into a new road project. The city has discussed the possibility of relocating where Route 38 meets Route 736 south to alleviate traffic dangers in the area.
Berbee said approving an application that would add traffic to the area would force the hand of a future council.
Public Services Director Mike Andrako said the city hopes to complete the project within the next few years, with or without the proposed development. Rausch said he sees the plan as providing a large amount of new income tax to use for the road project.
Tim Garrett, one of the owners of the property, said there’s no reason to believe the new development would diminish the value of the properties surrounding the project. He said with all the discussion of why council shouldn’t pass the plan, it should instead consider why it should.
“There’s a difference between input and control,” he said.