News from the Township

The neighborhood steering committee is made up of residents throughout Springfield Township who were in attendance at a township information sharing meeting held back in 2009. It was at that time that this group of people volunteered to participate on a steering committee that would be responsible for getting the "word out" to their respective neighborhoods one of which was View Place. Currently, Jeff (Dean) on View Place, Donna (Saul) on Deanview, Bill (Merusi) on Blossom Hills, and Pat (Kramer) on Bruce Hills have been in attendance to at least one of the those meetings so if you know any of these people, please feel free to ask them for more information.

Most of what is discussed at the meetings has been made available on the Springfield Township web page ( See Neighborhood Steering Committee news http://www.springfieldtwp.org/neighborhoodmasterplan.cfm) and here on this blog so feel free to navigate on your own to review the meeting agenda and discussions. In general, most of the planning and ideas are coming from residents like yourself who have been attending the trustee meetings, state of the township meetings, information sharing meetings, or residents who are watching community access cable stations.


During the original neighborhood meetings, a few reoccurring themes in crime/safety were communicated by residents. Specifically, residents in every neighborhood singled out problems of vicious dogs, neighborhood parking violations, and negative or criminal juvenile activity.

We were provided with recommendations for the master plan regarding these three issues and were asked to accept, reject or modify the recommendations. Knowing that crime and police related issues are not the same in every neighborhood, the township had taken the time to analyze the neighborhood-specific data and brainstorm possibilities that would be pertinent to our specific neighborhood issues.

On hand at this meeting tonight were law enforcement officers assigned to every neighborhood steering committee to answer questions and provide feedback. We had Chief Dave for Finneytown South.


What I learned from a presentation given by Chief Dave of the Springfield Township Police Department was that crime in Finneytown is down 22%. Overall, the township is also seeing a decrease in crime activity by 26%. Great news!

The Chief also presented recommendations for parking resolutions due to all the complaints and concerns they've been receiving over the years. Since most of the parking issues in View Place are about "zoning" we didn't have much to contribute other than our ongoing concerns about dogs and the few neighbors who drive faster than what our speed limit allows.

The parking recommendation that were shared with the steering committee was as follows:

"Pass New Comprehensive Parking Resolution tht resinds all previous parking resolutions and creates new parking regulations, by sections, fire lane, and special parking restrictions on certain streets (as previously have been adopted), 72 hour parking regulation, snow emergency, commericial vehicle prohibition and temporary parking for construction pods and dumpsters.

- Parking on the street would be limited to 72 hours
- Parking of commecial vehicles would be prohibited
- Parking on the unpaved portion of ROW would be prohibited
- Allow for the special permitting for the placement of dumpsters and PODs for construction projects when the placement in the yard is not feasible"


Another topic was about dogs and the concern that many neighbors had with dogs that are not restrained and pose a safety issue for neighbors. It was recommended that they focus on creating a resolution about the "behavior" of the dog rather than the "breed" of the dog which I supported 100% due to the complaint I've been receiving about 2 dogs that are getting out of the "invisible fence" at the end of Beechtree.

Another topic was about finding ways to engage our youth more into the community. The Fire Department, for example, made a recommendation to create a pilot program that identifies at least 10 "at risk for dropping out of school" or "at risk for drug abuse or gang violence" by partnering with area schools in the township.








The next steering committee meeting is planned for August.