Residents urge council to pause Shakertown Road widening, say project will harm homes and trees

Dozens of residents urged the Beavercreek City Council on June 22 to pause or cancel the Shakertown Road Improvement Project (Project ID 119964), saying the plan would permanently encroach on front yards, remove mature trees and reduce property values.

"The look and feel of our homes will be entirely different," said Heather Harvey, who spoke after a resident introduced her remarks to the council. Harvey said grading, new swales and a 10-foot shared-use path would move the road closer to houses even where the legal right-of-way remains unchanged.

The project, described in materials as improving safety and connectivity, has become a flashpoint at public meetings. John Turner, a retired Beavercreek police officer and long-time resident, told council the acquisition of residential front yards would "profoundly impact homeowners" and urged officials to explore traffic-calming and intersection changes instead of widening. Pamela Eklin, referencing the city's 2019 Thoroughfare Plan, said that plan called for a five-year review and questioned why the project is moving forward now rather than as part of a scheduled update. "This plan appears to be the instrument which is guiding decisions on which roads in Beavercreek get improved and when that happens," she said.

Speakers also challenged data used to justify the work. Several residents asked for new pedestrian and vehicle counts and said the regional comparisons cited by planners (two regional trails with average daily users of 192 and 272) were not comparable. One commenter said she had verbal communication from a regional partner indicating that a claimed penalty for withdrawing the project would not be permanent.

Cost and environmental impact were repeated themes. Gary Dunkel, representing a group of opponents, questioned the project's value and cited the engineering cost estimate, saying, "that is $1,150 per foot" for the portion under discussion. Others raised widely varying estimates of trees to be removed (transcript remarks ranged from about 95–125 trees to earlier, larger estimates) and noted the city engineer had described replacement plans for select properties but not for all trees claimed to be lost.

Council members did not vote on the Shakertown Road project at the meeting. Councilwoman Littrell thanked residents for speaking and said the council is "hearing them" and engaged in discussions about the matter; she and others said the meeting format limited detailed back-and-forth. No formal decision was made and council members indicated further consideration and review would continue.

The session showed sharp community division over whether to accept federal or state grant conditions and build the project as proposed, or to seek an alternative design that limits encroachment on private property. Residents requested redoing traffic counts, hiring outside engineering consultants for an independent review and clearer explanations of local funding commitments before the council proceeds.