Residents here have hired legal representation to fight a requested zoning change that they say will cause traffic issues and affect the safety of residents if the state’s second-largest Kroger Marketplace is built near a 300-home subdivision.

A Cincinnati-based developer presented a zoning change request Oct. 15 on 35 acres of residential land to build a Kroger Marketplace at the intersection of Tylersville and Princeton Glendale roads.

Bayer Becker, an engineering consultant firm in Mason, submitted an application Sept. 10 requesting the zoning be changed from R-1A Suburban Residence to C-PUD Commercial Planned Unit Development.

Details of the potential Crossings of Beckett development were outlined to the five-member West Chester Zoning Commission by Tim Burgoyne, director of site acquisition and development for developer Silverman and Company, Inc.

“This has been a great piece of ground that has sat in the township for a long time, and I think everybody knew that eventually it should have something on it that’s prominent and well-done,” Burgoyne said.

Resident Thomas Eggert was one of 17 residents to speak against the possible development at the meeting.

Eggert said his street of Wethersfield Drive — which parallels Ohio 747 north to Hamilton Mason Road — already faces unnecessary congestion due to people bypassing the traffic lights at Tylersville and Hamilton Mason roads.

“Kroger wants to use our street as their own personal delivery route,” Eggert said, citing preliminary plans for a service drive directly across from Wethersfield. “Eventually the streets won’t be able to contain the traffic.”

Eggert said the increased traffic volumes from a Kroger Marketplace and adjacent business are a concern of residents because Wethersfield Drive doesn’t have sidewalks for residents to walk their dogs or children to ride bicycles. In total, Eggert said there are about 300 homes in this area, including Providence Manor, that would feel a direct impact from a development of this size.

Bayer Becker is currently conducting a traffic impact study for the area, which will be submitted to the Butler County Engineer’s Office and Ohio Department of Transportation for approval and inclusion in the final development plan.

Chris Petrocy, spokesman for the engineer’s office, said the Entering Average Daily Traffic at the intersection is 36,000 vehicles, according to most recent traffic counts from 2010.

“Anytime you have any type of development, residential or commercial, there’s a need to improve roadways,” said Eric Pottenger, development services manager for the engineer’s office. “The traffic study will show if Tylersville Road needs widened but most of the traffic would enter on (Ohio) 747.”

Phase 1 of Crossings of Beckett would include a 133,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace with an additional 13,000-square-foot space for an inside tenant; a Kroger fuel center; and three one-acre outlying parcels of land for business to establish.

Kroger spokeswoman Rachael Betzler said Kroger is very interested in the development but stressed that plans are not finalized. If plans move forward, this Kroger Marketplace would be the state’s second largest. Ohio’s largest Kroger Marketplace is the 147,000-square-foot store in Centerville.

The Kroger Marketplace would include a bank and pharmacy with drive-through access, a Fred Meyer Jewelers and a small medical clinic, according to Burgoyne.

Phase 2 of the development would include six additional parcels of land — three along Ohio 747 and three along Tylersville Road — and a 5.83-acre development parcel.

Resident Angela Kemme, who lives on Walnut Creek Drive, said there is no need for a Kroger Marketplace at this intersection — citing a 108,000-square-foot Kroger Marketplace less than six miles away on Yankee Road in Liberty Twp.

“I think it’s too much congestion, too much traffic,” Kemme said, who added she likes the smaller size of the current Kroger about one mile away on Princeton Glendale Road. “Why can’t we renovate or redo some existing area that doesn’t abut residential areas?”

If the Kroger Marketplace is developed, Burgoyne said The Kroger Co. would vacate its nearby location at Ohio 747 and Smith Road. In his presentation, Burgoyne included market data to illustrate the likelihood of the vacant Kroger lot being “backfilled,” or reused by another tenant such as Walmart or Target.

“These spaces have done well historically in suburban places for backfill,” Burgoyne said. “The market here is so strong and well-tenanted that there’s room for this in the market and there’s need for this in the market.”

A crowd at the zoning meeting erupted into applause when the commission decided to table the motion until its next meeting at 6:30 p.m. Nov. 19 at the West Chester Administration Building, 9113 Cincinnati-Dayton Road.

“The zoning commission is by the people for the benefit of residents, and the zoning board should act in accordance with that,” Eggert said. “That property is zoned residential for a reason; it was considered by the West Chester Land Use Planning Committee as a buffer for the residential neighborhoods from the commercial development on Ohio 747.”

Eggert has hired a local lawyer to help fight the zoning change, he said.

The 35 acres that Silverman and Company, Inc. wants to develop is currently zoned for future residential development, according to township planner Bryan Behrmann. The land nearby is mostly zoned the same — R-1A, Residential Planned Unit Development, and Agricultural — except for a portion of C-PUD with Caribou Coffee, Key Bank and a fitness center.