Union's 22-acre Union Acres development won zone change approval Tuesday, July 28, but not without a fight over whether the city should limit how many units future owners can rent out.
The Union City Commission voted 3-1 to approve the 135-unit Drees Homes project off Hathaway Road near Old Union Road, according to LINK nky. Mayor Larry Solomon and Commissioners John Mefford and George Eldridge voted yes. Commissioner Doug Bine cast the lone dissenting vote. Commissioner Kimberly Tuyn recused herself, citing an unresolved personal issue involving Drees Homes.
The approval rezones the property from a mix of rural and estate residential classifications to suburban residential, clearing the way for Fort Mitchell-based Drees Homes and Arlinghaus Builders to construct 29 townhouses and 106 condominiums on the site. Both product types will include garages, and the condos will be two-story buildings with one unit stacked above another. Development manager Matt Mains has said the units will target empty nesters and young professionals.
The rental cap debate
The sharpest exchange came over a proposed condition that would have capped rental or non-owner-occupied units at 10% of the development.
Solomon and Eldridge backed the restriction, arguing it would protect property values. "The point is that it does help to keep the values of those properties up, and I think that is a good idea," Solomon said at the meeting.
Bine pushed back hard. He argued the city had no clear way to enforce the cap, that it would require new rental licensing bureaucracy, and that it would tell property owners what they can and cannot do with their homes.
The condition was removed so the commission could reach consensus on the final vote. Notably, city meeting minutes from the June 1 commission meeting show Mains had already told commissioners that Drees planned to limit rentals to 10% through the development's HOA documents. The debate was over whether to codify that developer promise as a binding city condition.
Conditions that survived
Several other conditions remain attached to the approval:
- Drees Homes or the future HOA must handle all snow and ice removal.
- The existing fence along the property's western boundary must be preserved and repaired.
- Density is capped at six dwelling units per acre, below the eight-per-acre maximum allowed under the Boone County Comprehensive Plan.
- A walking path shown on the approved site plan must be built and maintained.
- A left turn lane is required, per the Boone County Planning Commission, even though a traffic study found one was not warranted.
What's next
As we previously reported, the project had already advanced through the Boone County Planning Commission, which recommended approval on May 6. No construction start date or completion timeline has been announced. Drees Homes, a family-owned builder headquartered in Fort Mitchell, has not released pricing or a sales timeline for the units.
