Oxford News

Oxford city and area township representatives attempted to reach a middle ground on their transportation plans at a Sept. 18 workshop, but came away from the meeting without any substantial resolution on the U.S. 27 to Ohio 73 connector road.

City Council members and township trustees discussed the various aspects of their respective transportation plans, but eventually relented that allowing the Butler County Planning Commission to make the final decision on whether or not the connector should go on the map was the best course of action.

Oxford Mayor Prue Dana said the city would not be able to rework its thoroughfare plan in time for the Oct. 14 Planning Commission meeting, but was willing to accept the county body's ruling.

"I think that we were looking for a little bit more support from the township representatives on our suggestions of pulling the connector in closer and rerouting U.S. 27 through Oxford," Dana said. "We left without getting a really unanimous consensus and I'm not sure we expected that."

Township trustees and city representative eventually agreed to adopt the same alignment for a roadway on the south side of the city, in addition to Oxford and Milford Townships putting their support behind the city's study of rerouting U.S. 27 and Ohio 73 within city limits.

James Rubenstein, a professor of geography with Miami University who chaired the Oxford Township's comprehensive plan committee, said he hoped to eliminate as many discrepancies as possible between the city and township maps.

Rubenstein said he felt it was important the bodies make their position clear on the connector, noting numerous conditions attached to the roadway by city council only served to muddy the water.

"It's like being a little bit pregnant," he said. "The line is either on the map or it's not, we can't write all of these conditions into this."

Councilman Dick Keebler said he was bothered by the fact that surrounding communities don't recognize the Oxford's traffic woes or make any effort to assist city staff in finding a long-term solution.

"We've made a big effort to bring (the connector) in closer to the city, yet you still want more," Keebler said. "Nobody has provided any alternative for us to get U.S. 27 around the city. All you're leaving us with is something that's going to require us to annex more and more land in order to eventually make it happen."

Contact this reporter at (513) 523-4139, ext. 86102, or at rgauthier@coxohio.com.