BATAVIA TWP., Ohio — Ray Neiser swung open the chicken coop in his backyard, checking for eggs. It’s part of the reason he loves living here.
“The space,” Neiser said. “It’s beautiful.”
But Neiser also has his concerns about the village, and near the pool in his backyard, I asked him if he felt like he was being listened to.
"Of course not," Neiser said.
His son-in-law Brian Wandstrat sat at a table nearby, shaking his head.
“We’ve been called outsiders,” Wandstrat said. “When you have tax-abated subdivisions, every single Clermont County resident who pays property taxes, it affects them.”
Go inside Batavia's development drama in the video below:
Wandstrat bought his 17-acre property in Batavia Township a few years ago.
He knew the dozens of acres of land behind him would eventually be developed, and said he even offered to help the seller get some interest.
“I never thought it would turn into something like that,” Wandstrat said.
Now, he’s worried about the density of the 668-home proposal and the potential drain on local resources because of a tax-incentive deal.
It’s why he came to WCPO’s first “Let’s Talk” event in Batavia. I was there, and most conversations involved development or tax incentives. Several people told me they decided to run for office because of it.
We knew Clermont County was growing. But some people told us they aren’t happy about how it’s growing.
“For the record, I am a proponent of growth and development,” Neiser said. “But it needs to be responsible development.”
In his backyard, he pulled out a map of the development plan. He took out a red pen and circled homes.
“Nothing looks like this at all,” Wandstrat said. “And nothing looked like this, because it was all in the township.”
Neiser pounds the table almost a foot to the side of the page they printed off for me.
"The village proper is over here," Neiser said.
I took these concerns to Village Administrator Ken Geis. He told me he understands the emotions about development. Geis said he's heard concerns for a while now, but that the village isn’t doing anything wrong.
“Tax incentives are one way to attract new development,” Geis said. “For people to say that communities shouldn’t use them is almost disingenuous.”
The administrator told me he's still negotiating with the joint fire district, which has a tax levy on the ballot this fall, to offset some of the money they might lose from a deal like this.
“For whatever reason, people just don't want to hear that," Geis said.
Neiser and Wandstrat still hope the development can be scaled down, even though Geis says he expects construction could start soon. Neiser stops me as I started to leave his back yard. He said he wanted to make sure I understood.
“It’s legal, but is it ethical?” Neiser asked. “That’s the simplest way to put it.”
