The second housing development making movement this year, for a housing market hungry for more housing, may help a congested county road.
A parcel of about 60 acres on Pleasant Valley Road is in the beginning stages of being planned for a single-family housing subdivision. Representatives of the potential developer, D.R. Horton, have been speaking with Ross County to get the process started.
But trouble with rush-hour traffic – between Unioto Schools and the US 35 offramp at Egypt Pike, and the intersection at Veterans Parkway – has presented a problem that the subdivision might help solve.
Traffic circles may be unpopular with some drivers, but they keep traffic flowing without much stopping, and they might relieve congestion at the two-lane constriction of an arterial road between northern and western Chillicothe: the stretch of Pleasant Valley Road between its eastern intersection with the US 35 offramp, Egypt Pike, and Sandusky Parkway…and its western intersection with Veterans Parkway, Clinton Road, and western Pleasant Valley Road.
D.R. Horton is billed as one of nation’s largest single-family homebuilders. They have 17 developments scattered around Central Ohio.
The land is at 13223 Pleasant Valley Road, some of which is remembered as a peony farm. (On the other side of US 35 is the other development moving along this year, but much farther ahead, with land already cleared for construction.)
Hodge said D.R. Horton would be open to paying for a traffic study to see if traffic circles would even help. One concern aired is that one circle at one end of the corridor might actually make congestion worse at the other end, by allowing traffic through faster. So…two traffic circles might be needed, at the two intersections.
A Tax Increment Financing (TIF) arrangement has been proposed, so that rising tax revenue from the developing property is funneled into paying off construction of traffic circle(s).
Hear Hodge in his own words in the video interview in the article on the Scioto Post. He said the “traditional” subdivision might have 160 lots of 40- and 50-foot width – narrow but comfortable home sites that allow areas of open space. He was reluctant to suggest prices, but said they would probably be $350K and more.
It has been suggested that the development has its main entrance on western Pleasant Valley Road at Faith Chapel, with a right in/out onto Pleasant Valley Road.
Kevin Coleman covers local government and culture for the Scioto Post and iHeart Media Southern Ohio. For stories or questions, contact Kevin Coleman or the iHeart Southern Ohio Newsroom.