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Controversial annexation before county commission

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By Denise G. Callahan, Staff Writer 12:01 PM Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Warren County Commission is scheduled to revisit Thursday, June 4, the controversial annexation request of land to South Lebanon.

The annexation petition for 165 acres to the village, known as the “Middleton Annexation,” was filed late last year by property owners, including Donald and Delores Middleton, who own 18 acres of land along Mason-Morrow-Milgrove Road, and Little Miami Inc., which has about 12 acres of land along Columbia Road.

If approved, approximately 31 acres would be annexed from Union Twp., 48 acres from Deerfield Twp. and about 86 acres in Hamilton Twp. to South Lebanon.

The annexation petition has been revised, pulled and revised some more, but Deerfield Twp. officials still maintain there are issues that preclude the commissioners from accepting the expedited annexation without a hearing.

“Since the official records of the county engineer, the county auditor and the county recorder do not show who currently owns five acres of dry land and an adjoining 5.9 acres of riverbed, this issue should be determined after a hearing where all sides have an opportunity to present evidence,” Deerfield Twp. Law Director Tom Swope wrote in a lengthy letter to the commissioners asking for a hearing.

The revised petition removed 9.45 acres of land that were shown to be owned by TEJ Holdings, which was not listed on the original petition. However, according to Swope, another issue is a land transfer that occurred in 1969 between the King Powder Company, Warren County and the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.

Commissioners basically have to rubber stamp expedited annexations, unless problems are found.

In addition to Deerfield’s opposition, Hamilton Twp. Law Director Warren Ritchie says there is an even bigger problem with the proposed annexation.

“Our position has been all along that the property is not contiguous to the village of South Lebanon,” he said.

The commissioners will consider the annexation at 5:15 p.m.

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