City commission asks Dayton to declare former fairgrounds site a blighted area

DAYTON — After five years, progress for the almost 40 acres where the old Montgomery County Fairgrounds used to be.

>> PREVIOUS COVERAGE: City commission OKs onMain plan for former county fairgrounds

The 40 acres off Main Street have not been developed since the fairgrounds moved out in 2018.

“It’s a really important community project,” Shelley Dickstein, Dayton city manager said.

Dickstein said the organization “OnMain” owns the site.

Premier Health and the University of Dayton own the property.

>>RELATED: $29M infrastructure needed for onMain early phases

During Wednesday’s city commission meeting the agenda mentioned plans for the commission to declare the site a blighted area.

“That legislation is basically an economic development tool, it allows for the project to receive the maximum amount of funding and flexibility through the tax incentive finance programs,” Dickstein explained.

OnMain’s website features renderings for a mixed-use development with housing and retail stores.

It said a project of this size could take 10 to 15 years to finish.

Khali Watson lives in Dayton she shared what he wants to see in the area.

“Shops, the food market, I would also like to see maybe some type of like MetroPark over there,” Watson said.

But Tracy Kraft doesn’t want the city to forget about the problems she thinks they need to address.

“The city is gonna have to get realistic about what’s happening with the homeless, we’re gonna get realistic about what’s happening to our street addicts, and really start tackling some of the problems that are plaguing the neighborhoods surrounding that proposed development site,” craft said.

The city commission will have a second reading of the blighted area legislation next week.

News Center 7 reached out to OnMain to talk about the project but has not heard back.

We will continue following this story and update as new information is available.

©2023 Cox Media Group