ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — Anderson Township leaders and residents are weighing the future of a newly acquired 17-acre property next to Beech Acres Park.
The park district purchased the former Beech Acres Parenting Center property on Beechmont Avenue, just as you enter the township from the Mount Washington area, in 2023. Combined with additional adjacent acres owned by the township where the RecPlex sits, officials said they see a major opportunity to expand local recreation.
On Tuesday night, the township trustees, park district and school board met jointly for the first time since 2015 to review the results of a recent community survey.
The survey, which included both mail-in and online responses, showed residents overwhelmingly want the space used for recreation, echoing the results of a November parks operating levy.
That levy passed with a 2-to-1 vote.
"Our voters clearly support our parks here in Anderson Township," said resident and levy committee member Betsy Moore. "Right now, we're faced with a situation where we have a great responsibility to really do the right thing for all the future generations."
Moore said the parks provide opportunities for seniors, families, kids and toddlers.
"Everybody is very happy to have the property and have it as park property," Moore said.
WATCH: Residents hear from township leaders about the potential future of the major property
However, some worry about competing visions for the site.
Ann Zimmerman, chair of the November levy campaign and a local small business owner, said the voter mandate was to preserve the land permanently as a park.
Zimmerman said some have suggested leasing the land for private development, such as a restaurant or apartments, to help fund an aquatic or community center.
"I think some people are hoping that we turn it over to private development. The problem is you give up so much control of it," Zimmerman said. "You don't have a park for 99 years, or whatever the land lease is, and that takes control away from us."
She added that a restaurant is a low-profit-margin business that often struggles to stay open, calling the idea of using one to support an expensive center "doing it upside down."
Zimmerman also pointed to a 2024 impact study showing parks bring approximately $4.3 million into the local economy from outside visitors, which she said directly benefits small businesses.
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"Of course, budgets matter, so we've got to do it in a careful manner, so that we know we've got money to run it at the end and not only build it," Zimmerman said.
Anderson Township Trustee Katie Nappi, who took office in January, said the next step is a feasibility study to determine costs and how the project fits into the township's broader comprehensive plan.
"I think for me, keeping the residents, what they want, and their interests at the heart of this as we figure out how to solve for what goes at Beech Acres, how we pay for it, all of that (is) the thing that's the most important to me," Nappi said.
