Fairfield City Council has given final approval to a 68-unit villa community that will rise on South Gilmore Road right next to Mercy Health Fairfield Hospital, one of the region's larger acute care facilities. The development, called Whispering Hill, will sit on an 18-acre site just north of Mack Road, and dirt-moving work is slated to begin this summer with road paving to follow in March 2027.
The council's approval, granted this month, formalizes a development agreement between Mitchell Development & Construction LLC and M/I Homes, according to the Journal-News. It follows earlier economic development assistance agreements the council introduced back in February. As Local 12 reports, the site sits about half a mile north of Interstate 275 and the former Forest Fair Mall property, placing the new homes squarely alongside the hospital campus.
Whispering Hill will consist of owner-occupied paired duplex villas built on lots of at least 5,000 square feet, with three home layouts ranging from 1,500 to 3,200 square feet and two to four bedrooms, according to Fairfield Development News. Buyers will have the option of basements or second floors, and homes on sloped portions of the site will include walk-out basements.
From Stalled Patio Homes to a Villa Community
The property wasn't always destined for villas. Fairfield's planning commission records show the site was originally entitled as “Benzing Estates,” a planned unit development calling for 24 patio homes and 40 paired villas. That plan stalled amid shifting market conditions and rising interest rates before M/I Homes acquired the parcel and reworked the layout, adding four units to reach the current 68-unit count for Whispering Hill.
Traffic safety has been a central piece of the planning discussion. South Gilmore Road's elevated terrain creates sight-distance constraints, so the city is requiring developers to build a dedicated left-turn lane and install warning signage at the site's entrance, which was positioned at the property's highest elevation point specifically to maximize driver visibility. The requirements were laid out in planning commission records dated this past July.
A Hospital Neighbor With Its Own Recent Changes
Mercy Health Fairfield Hospital, founded in 1978 on land donated by the city, operates a 211-bed acute care facility that handles more than 12,000 patient discharges a year and runs a family medicine residency program. The hospital added a dedicated patient tower in 2005. It discontinued its labor and delivery unit before late 2024 as part of broader consolidation across the Bon Secours Mercy Health system, a shift Hoodline previously reported, with maternity services shifting to Mercy Health Anderson Hospital.
Bon Secours Mercy Health had also previously floated a separate nine-acre mixed-use project at South Gilmore and Mack roads, envisioning a 30,000-square-foot medical office building, retail space, and a standalone restaurant designed to connect directly into the hospital campus, per Fairfield Development News.
A Corridor in the Middle of Reinvention
Whispering Hill is landing in a stretch of South Gilmore Road that's been reshaping itself for months. Half a mile south, the 1.5 million-square-foot former Forest Fair Mall was fully demolished earlier this year, clearing 90 acres for redeveloper Hillwood Investment Properties to build a 715,736-square-foot facility anchored by The Hillman Group. Meanwhile, the Old Spaghetti Factory on the same commercial strip closed for good in May after 24 years, leaving Ohio without any remaining locations of the chain.
To keep pace with the growth, Fairfield has also launched a corridor infrastructure project between Mack and Resor roads to widen traffic lanes and boost capacity ahead of the new commercial and residential construction, with those road upgrades intended to be finished before residential building ramps up.
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