Warren County commissioners instruct engineer to consider departure for Willow Pond Boulevard; work session set on Thoroughfare Plan changes

At a regular meeting, Warren County commissioners discussed a developer request to deviate from the county Thoroughfare Plan for Willow Pond Boulevard in Hamilton Township and voted to instruct the county engineer to consider or approve a departure from the plan.

County engineer Kurt e Weber described the site and said the existing right of way is 30 feet; he said his office supports a proposed additional 10-foot right-of-way dedication and that the section is being treated using the local subdivision curb-and-gutter typical section. During his presentation he contrasted the current Thoroughfare Plan's 'ditch' rural local-street classification with the curb-and-gutter subdivision classification and said the proposed 10-foot dedication fits the curb-and-gutter approach his office recommends.

Commissioners and staff discussed developer concerns about timing: the developer asked for early assurance of a departure because redesign costs would be incurred if the final plat later did not receive unanimous approval. To address that risk, one commissioner moved "to instruct the county engineer to consider or to approve a departure from the original thoroughfare plan relative to Willow Pond Boulevard in Hamilton Township," language that was seconded and then the chair called roll. The transcript records 'Missus Jones? Yes.' and 'Mister Young? Yes.' The motion was recorded and the board proceeded to set a work session with the Regional Planning Commission to consider proposed textual amendments to the Thoroughfare Plan.

At the work-session discussion, Ryan Cook of Warren County Regional Planning proposed updating the local-street typical sections to explicitly include a curb-and-gutter local-subdivision cross section, recognize recent engineers'-office right-of-way practices in the Thoroughfare Plan text, and add process language that in some cases would allow the engineer's office to use field-established or ODOT-adopted right-of-way rather than returning to the board for approval each time. Commissioners raised questions about how any "discretion" would be applied and emphasized the need for criteria and consistency; staff and the county engineer said the intent is to preserve consistency with what is already built or approved by outside agencies rather than to grant ad hoc concessions to applicants.

The record shows the board agreed to a work session to draft Thoroughfare Plan text amendments and that the public-comment period for the meeting produced no speakers prior to the planned tax-budget session.