The assisted senior living operator is looking to purchase the property that was once home to One Way Farm at 6131 River Road. They are asking Fairfield City Council and Planning Commission to approve the concept and final development plan of 5.6 acres on three parcels. The approval would change the zoning from agricultural to a planned unit development.
This site was the home to One Way Farm founded by Barb and Gerald Condo in 1976 as a home for abused and neglected children. The home closed in 2018 after Barb Condo’s health didn’t allow her to operate the facility. She died in 2023.
More than a year after the home closed, Calvary Tabernacle Church in Madison Twp. led by the Rev. John Rice, purchased the One Way Farm and continued the Condos mission. Though they are now selling the Fairfield city and township property, Rice said they will continue the mission in Butler County, just closer to the church.
“It just made a lot of sense for us,” he said. “They had come to us and made us an offer for the property.”
Rice said they are in the process of moving as they are renovating the new One Way Farm space and should take a month to six weeks to complete.
If Optimized Senior Living’s request is approved, the issue then would need to be taken up with Fairfield Twp trustees, as the back half of the property, which consists of two parcels, is in the township.
Optimized Senior Living wants to operate a senior assisted living facility at the 12-acre site on East River Road in western Fairfield. There is an administrative building located in the city and two residential buildings in the township.
The plan would be to renovate the two existing buildings within the township into memory care units housing up to six residents in each building. Two metal buildings are also in the township to be renovated ― one for an adult daycare center and the other for storage and administration functions.
The front building is in the city limits and would be renovated to house 24 residents. A 3,800-square-foot addition is proposed to the existing 5,700-foot structure, and would include a common living, dining and kitchen area, an office, hair salon, and housekeeping services. Between 10 and 12 staff would be working at any one time.
A second phase would be assessed based on need but could see up to two buildings and accommodate 28 additional assisted living residents.
Optimized Senior Living founder and co-owner Lindsay McLaughlin, who is also a registered nurse, said they own facilities in Lebanon and Kettering and manage facilities in Loveland and Newtown.
“It’s about the care, it’s about family,” she said about the facility that’s family and veteran owned. “It’s about providing the compassion and dignity and respect to these residents.”
The organization was founded six years ago and is designed “to truly look, feel and smell like a home, just with more bedrooms.” She said it will look like a ranch-style home with residents who are engaged and social.
If approved by the city, Fairfield staff intends to collaborate with Fairfield Twp. officials “to ensure a common vision for the project in both communities,” said Planning Manager Erin Lynn.
McLaughlin said, if approved, the first phase would take six to eight months to complete.
The planning commission had a hearing on the issue Wednesday evening, after the Journal-News deadline for this story, but a public hearing was held at City Council on Monday. It will be before City Council two more times, on April 22 and May 13.
At Monday’s public hearing, there were some concerns about the development.
Krista Hutzel, of 6146 E. River Road, felt other properties around Fairfield would be more suited than the one directly across the road from her home. McLaughlin said they had searched about 18 months and the former One Way Farm site “is really great given the proximity to Ross and Colerain townships, “and the referrals that we’re getting across the area is that there are just not enough places out that way.”
Hutzel, as well as others, are worried about the added activity. The area already has truck traffic from a gravel-mining operation nearby.
“I just feel like this is being crammed into a small place where it doesn’t belong,” she said.
Ray Cadle, of 6174 E. River Road, called the traffic, especially with the trucks that use this road, “horrendous.”
“You really need to stop and take a look at what you’re doing down there,” he said. “There’s too much going on down there. You need to seriously take a look down there.”
McLaughlin said phase two would be dependent on the need, which she believes would be needed. But she said concerns about ambulances running in and out of this facility are unlikely as they don’t call 911 for every fall as nurses triage any medical situation. She said “it’s pretty infrequent” for an ambulance to be coming into the facility.
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