Four Beavercreek homeowners are asking a court to stop a $3 million road improvement project along Shakertown Road, filing for a restraining order against the work, WHIO News Center 7 reported Nov. 12.
The legal action, reported by WHIO, is the latest turn in a months-long fight over the Shakertown Road widening, one of the most contested projects in recent Beavercreek memory. Homeowners along the corridor have packed council meetings since the summer, urging the city to cancel or revise the widening and raising concerns about trees, stormwater runoff and property values.
The project would widen Shakertown Road from Carthage Drive to Southern Belle Boulevard to three lanes, adding curb and gutter, storm sewer and sidewalks on both sides, City Engineer Nick Smith told council in October, according to the city’s meeting record. The city holds $2,407,500 in grant funding for the project, awarded in 2023, which requires a local match.
That grant money is also why the city says the calendar cannot slip. Staff have told council the property filings must be made by the end of the year to protect the funding, with bidding, utility relocation and construction set to begin in March 2027.
On Nov. 9, Beavercreek City Council approved more than 20 right-of-way acquisitions for the widening despite homeowner opposition, according to the Dayton Daily News. The ordinances appropriate property interests along the corridor as emergencies, a step the city’s legal counsel said was needed to file court petitions on schedule. City officials have said the takes in the Shakertown ordinances are temporary easements for grading or storm sewer work — not permanent takings — and that owners remain entitled to compensation.
Owners along the road have disputed how the process has been handled, objecting to the emergency readings and asking for records of the city’s contacts with property owners. As of late October, city staff said 12 of the 32 affected properties had been settled, with a few more verbally agreed.
A restraining order, if granted, could pause the city’s filings and put the year-end grant deadline — and the March 2027 construction start — in doubt. The city has not yet publicly responded to the homeowners’ filing. What happens next is a court’s decision on the request, and whether Beavercreek’s road fight moves from the council chamber to a courtroom for good.