Usually citizens circulate petitions AGAINST a zone change for a development project which may affect their neighborhood.
In Sycamore Township, however, Kenwood Meadows residents Jim Huff and Larry Meyer collected 303 signatures SUPPORTING a zone change that will allow Neyer Properties’ Kenwood Towers development. The project includes construction of the proposed $47.3 million FBI Building.
This 12-acre, $100 million project includes a seven-story, 160-room hotel offering meeting and banquet facilities; a nine-story, 266,000 square foot office building and parking garage; as well as the proposed FBI Building, which is slated for construction this fall. Construction on Kenwood Towers could begin as early as spring, 2010.
“There’s something going right in Kenwood and Sycamore Township,” said Huff when he addressed the Sycamore Township Board of Trustees, according to a local news report.
Sycamore Meadows resident Larry Meyer said the 100-foot setback from residential property lines, efficient traffic flow and green facets of the projects appealed to him and his neighbors.
Sycamore Township unanimously approved the zone change. The proposed hotel and offices are to be located west of the FBI building along Interstate 71, just south of Montgomery Road. The projects are anticipated to bring in more than $600,000 in additional property tax revenues to the Indian Hill School District, which will help maintain property taxes in this area at their current levels and allow for additional services within the district.
“I’ve never seen a developer work as hard as Neyer Properties did to appease the residents of a neighborhood and work together with them, not against them,” said Tom Weidman, president of the Sycamore Township board of trustees. “We believe that whenever we spend taxpayer money on a project, we must do it responsibly and with vision to the future.”