Developers respond to neighbors' criticism

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Ohio EPA-approved storm-water control measures are in place, an engineer says.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

COLUMBIANA — Despite a complaint from surrounding lakefront homeowners alleging improper storm-water drainage, developers of a Pine Lake condominium complex say they're good neighbors and good stewards of the environment.

"We offer a nice development that basically is surrounded by natural beauty," said Jamie Garayua, general manager of Evergreen Land Development LLC, developers of the residential complex known as Pine Lake Reserve.

"I think this development sets the standard" for good storm-water and sediment management, Garayua said. "We feel that this development blends in well with Pine Lake and the surrounding community because we are combining natural beauty and new construction."

A recent lawsuit by the Pine Lake Homeowners Association, which represents neighbors of the complex, complained about what it called improper approval of changes in the development and incomplete infrastructure and inadequate storm-water control in the condo complex, but the developers deny these accusations.

The suit said Evergreen hasn't fulfilled its obligations under a 2001 federal court order that ended a previous lawsuit to complete the streetlighting, roads, landscaping and storm-water retention system within 31/2 years of the order's issuance.

Disagrees

Garayua said that the developers have fulfilled all their obligations and that the top coat of asphalt will be applied on the development's roads when the first phase nears completion. Garayua said the development also has silt fences that trap sediment in storm-water runoff and keep it out of the storm drains.

All the development's storm-water control systems, including a detention pond and lakefront storm-water filtration tanks, were approved by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, said Bernard Petro, Evergreen's engineer.

"There's been a lot of good cooperation here" from the developers, said Don Garver, urban conservationist with the Mahoning County Soil and Water Conservation District, who has visited the site regularly since construction began in 2003.

Evergreen will file court papers to have the homeowners' association lawsuit against the company and Beaver Township and its planning consultant removed from Mahoning County Common Pleas Court to the courtroom of U.S. District Judge Dan Aaron Polster in Cleveland, explained Evergreen's lawyer, Edwin Romero.

The suit, filed for the association March 7 by Atty. Robert J. Herberger, seeks a writ of mandamus to compel township officials to review changes in plans for the condo development according to procedures outlined in the township zoning ordinance.

Agreed to reductions

In November 2001, Judge Polster issued the order that ended Evergreen's federal lawsuit against township trustees over trustees' objections to the project's size. The township and Evergreen agreed to terms of that order, which reduced the project from 395 to 335 dwelling units.

The changes approved last fall reduce Phase I of the development from 74 to 69 dwelling units and wipe six unbuilt fourplexes and five unbuilt duplexes off the project map, according to Garayua.

By removing those fourplexes from the project, Evergreen has reduced its population density, Romero observed. Neighbors, who objected to the development when it was first proposed in 1998, complained it had too high a proposed population density, he noted.

To date, 22 condo dwelling units have been built, of which 17 are sold and occupied, Garayua said. Units built so far consist of two fourplexes and 14 single dwelling unit buildings, with units ranging from $200,000 to $1 million. The $90 million, 108-acre terraced condominium development is on a hillside facing Pine Lake — a 475-acre recreational lake that offers boating and fishing.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007