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City staff seeks to design and build off-site infrastructure for Southwest Dayton development; council tables item pending land-rights clarity
Summary
City staff proposed designing and building off-site road and utility improvements for a Southwest Dayton development that would cross a city parcel and a narrow strip owned by the Shaney Group; the council tabled the proposal pending resolution of land-rights and legal options.
City staff proposed on May 27 that the city take responsibility for engineering and constructing a large off-site infrastructure segment needed to serve a proposed Southwest Dayton development (the Dayton Parkway neighborhood and adjacent Dayton Creek addition). The segment would cross a city-owned parcel and a narrow piece of land owned by the Shaney Group (referred to in the meeting as the Dayton Creek addition); staff said permitting with the Army Corps was complete but wetland mitigation credits and land-rights remain unresolved.
Staff summarized the scope and high-level estimate: approximately $2,000,000 for construction, a proposed city-contracting fee of about $204,000 (which may drop if design files can be shared), wetland mitigation estimated at about $514,000, and other indirect costs such as testing and legal at roughly $50,000. Staff said they would prepare design documents, perform necessary soil borings and topographic survey work and then bid the construction as a city project; a target date for design was spring 2026 with possible limited grading this fall if access and design files were available.
A central hurdle is land rights across a small strip owned by the Shaney Group. Staff reported that "there is not existing land rights" across that portion and that the Shaney Group "has not indicated that they would be willing to give access to the property." Councilmembers pushed for more information and said the change in the developer's platting approach (recorded recently) had created the current impasse.
Council and staff discussed options including continued negotiation, land swaps, voluntary agreements, and the potential but sensitive use of eminent domain. The city attorney was asked to provide legal guidance; staff noted that staff had operated for months under the reasonable expectation that the developers would coordinate and that a recent change to the developer's plat created the present issue. A motion to table the item passed; the council asked staff to return after discussing legal options and seeking clarity from the adjacent property owner.
Staff recommended proceeding with engineering if access and cooperation were obtained, but council chose to delay until the land-rights question and legal options were clearer.
