Harrison Township has taken ownership of 20 acres of land damaged during the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes and is planning its redevelopment. Officials are crafting an open-space vision plan for the parcel, intended to complement a major jobs center Montgomery County is planning.
A Donated Parcel With a Painful History
The 20-acre parcel was damaged during the 2019 Memorial Day tornadoes, which left damage the township is still working through years later, according to The Business Journals. The outlet reports Harrison Township has taken ownership of the land and is developing an open-space vision plan for the site. That plan, per the same report, is intended to complement a job and training center Montgomery County is planning at the former Forest Park site.
Montgomery County's separate Forest Park project involves the former property in Harrison Township. The county says it completed the purchase in August, securing 40 acres for the new Job and Training Center and future growth, according to the county government's project page. The county has described the new facility as expected to run between 140,000 and 160,000 square feet.
County Timeline for the Job and Training Center
Montgomery County says construction on the Job and Training Center is expected to begin in mid-2027, with completion anticipated in late 2028, per a county newsflash. County commissioners have already approved a $3 million contract with Miamisburg-based Levin Porter Architects to design the facility, the county's project page notes. The county also says it worked closely with Harrison Township throughout the process of securing the Forest Park property and shaping a vision for its future.
The township's open-space vision plan and the county's planned jobs center are distinct efforts. The parcel plan's design, budget, and timeline remain part of the vision plan still taking shape.
Years of Recovery Along the Stillwater
The riverfront acquisition lands against the backdrop of a long township recovery effort. Four years after the tornadoes, Harrison Township Administrator Kris McClintick estimated the township had recovered around 96%, according to WDTN. McClintick told the station that more than 1,800 properties in the township sustained damage from the storms, a scale of destruction that still shapes decisions about what gets rebuilt and what gets repurposed.
The damage reached the township's green spaces as well as its buildings. McClintick said Harrison Township lost 300 of the 400 trees at Sinclair Park and had replanted more than 100 of them by the time of the station's report. Elsewhere along the Stillwater River, the township moved to demolish an abandoned five-unit condominium building on Lofty Oaks Lane that had been heavily damaged by the tornadoes, according to Dayton 24/7 Now. Township trustees had declared those units dangerous properties with unsecured structural damage, the station reported.
Together, the newly acquired acres, the township's broader recovery tally, and the county's planned jobs center paint a picture of a community still rebuilding more than seven years after the storms. For now, the specifics of what the township will do with the parcel remain part of a vision plan still taking shape.
