Faced with more and more growth, Williamsburg Township is updating its land use plan for the first time in more than 20 years.
“This is our time,” said Gary Jordan who has been a township trustee for 17 years. “[We] get a shot at the economy coming through, we want to do it right.”
Jordan said Williamsburg Township is no longer the quiet, rural community it was before the Appalachian Highway, also known as State Route 32, came through town.
He points to the furniture company Design Within Reach’s large distribution center and a recently-opened Purina dry dog-food plant, as well as a potential $1 billion facility from Swiss pharmaceutical company Lonza.
Rather than be caught unprepared, Jordan said it’s important that the township modernize its land use plan for the first time since 2004.
“We just can't throw a dart and let it hit a map and say, ‘Here's where we want to see commercial growth, or whatever it might be,’” Jordan said.
Trustees are working with Clermont County’s Office of Community and Economic Development to map the township, marking what should be preserved and what sections would be ideal for growth.
“We need to understand how to grow sustainably,” said Senior Planner Drew DeMarsh. “We don't necessarily want to experience a new wave of suburbanization and suburban sprawl that's led to a higher cost for maintaining and improving infrastructure.”
DeMarsh, who helped develop a land use plan for Goshen Township under similar circumstances, said a housing study from last year demonstrates Clermont County’s need for thoughtful planning.
It says the county will need nearly 12,000 new housing units by 2045. And it also reveals characteristics about Williamsburg Township: its homeowners report the highest cost-burden rate — when more than 30% of income goes toward housing — in the county.
Statistics will play into the final land use plan, but DeMarsh said another key factor in the process is resident input.
The trustees distributed a survey in April asking the community about its priorities.
Of the 85 respondents, nearly 75% said the township should focus on preserving farmland. Just over 75% said single-family housing is most needed, and about 57% asked the township to prioritize rural lots.
Considering this feedback, Jordan said the township would like to keep the growth along the S.R. 32 corridor, while keeping outlying areas more rural.
But he notes there’s only so much a township can control.
Trustees may make zoning decisions and issue resolutions, such as one they unanimously passed in August requesting a bridge and interchange in the township. But trustees cannot prevent farmers from selling their land to developers, or keep the village from annexing land — something DeMarsh said has been an ongoing issue for both Williamsburg and Batavia townships.
“They can plan till they're blue in the face,” DeMarsh said. “But if a project comes along that's bordering the limits of either Batavia Village or Williamsburg Village, then those villages are able to annex and sort of develop that land however they see fit, regardless of what the trustees have been doing here and planning.”
More than 430 acres of Williamsburg Township land have been annexed since 2000.
Hopefully, a land use plan will include ways to work collaboratively with Williamsburg Village, DeMarsh said.
Going forward, the trustees don’t want to continue the process without more community input.
“When we take a cross section of the township, there's a lot of old timers left in the area. There's a lot of farmers. There's a lot of residential individuals that are the working middle class,” Jordan said. “We want to hear from everybody, not just investors, and not just people that's frustrated.”
The township plans to hold a town hall about its land use plan sometime next year, in January or February. Trustees will discuss plans for that town hall during an upcoming meeting.
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