From the 6/4/06 Enquirer:

 

Giving suburbs an identity

Planners use traditional town square as a model for future

BY STEVE KEMME | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

 

The traditional urban town square has become a model for some suburban communities, large and small, that have become acutely aware in recent years that they're missing something big - an identifiable center.  The deep ravine and barren hillsides on a site off Five Mile Road in Anderson Township will soon be transformed into the "town square" of this community of 42,045 residents.

 

Sprawling West Chester Township plans to build a park containing walkways lined with gaslights, a 90-foot-high bell tower, retail stores and offices.  It's designed to become the township's central gathering place.  Fairfield spent $15.2 million to build its new showcase town center, the Village Green.

 

This attempt to create town square-style centers is part of a local and national trend among suburban communities.  Even Cincinnati neighborhoods are embracing the town square model as they try to lure people back to the city.

 

Full article at http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060604/NEWS01/606040373/1056/rss02

 

blah....Fairfield Village Green is hardly a downtown or square....

While public squares are something I adore, this rubbed me the wrong way:

 

The construction of the Interstate 75 interchange at Union Centre Boulevard in 1997 changed the town center proposal from a mere idea to a viable plan. The interchange made Union Centre the logical location for a downtown.

^YES, especially considering West Chester Village already existed.

 

 

I think Village Green is terrible from an urban center side, but it is a nice strip mall. When the developers decided they didn't want to put residential overtop, Fairfield should have pulled back.

 

 

I was also in the understanding that the new library would be part of the Middletown system, not Lane out of Hamilton. It could be a good thing if it would expand, that would probably mean a couple jobs for Hamilton.

Yeah calling the Fairfield Village Green a square is disrespectful toward downtowns and squares.  I also think it's quite humourous that these people think they can just plop down a "downtown" wherever there is open space for one, regardless of the people or the past.

For the most part it is these lowlife developers swooning cities that, for the most part, have peaked or will in the next 5 years (Westlake currently, Seven Hills development incoming) with quick tax revenue and supposed density, regardless of it's overall regional impact.  These types of developments are the flavor of the week until these dirtbag developers find another way to expand upon the consumer society.