Butler Township Planning Commission members on Tuesday tabled a subdivision request for the Highfield Trails development plan.

While the committee announced its intention to table the motion early in the meeting, it used the opportunity to review the development's plans. Brad Simmons, project manager, spoke on behalf of the developer, Great Living.

The development would consolidate 39 acres of property, including two baseball fields, demolish the existing structures and buildings and then subdivide the land into 113 new units, which would be roughly .25 acres each.

The proposal also includes about 13 acres of open space, about one-third of the development, which would be managed through a housing authority.

The commissioners, as well as the township engineer, solicitor and zoning officer, asked questions about many parts of the plan, including lighting, driveway access and road configurations.

Zoning officer Jesse Hines said the township received the initial plans Sept. 8 and received the first revised plans Nov. 24, which did not give township officials enough time to review the plans in detail.

“There's a lot of issues to work through still,” Hines said.

Simmons was also asked what would happen to the Highfield Community Center with the plan. Demonstrated on plans shown at Tuesday's meeting, the center appears to be outside of the development to the northeast.

“As far as I'm aware, that's not a part of our property,” Simmons said.

Board member Ernest Oesterling also asked about multiple war monuments that currently stand in the area. Simmons said the developer had considered that early in the planning.

“Those will be respectfully moved to a different location as they deserve to be,” Simmons said.

About 10 residents also attended the meeting, with two speaking out against the development.

“This cluster development is not right for our area,” said Ken Schultz. “This is going to affect the value of all our homes in Highfield.”

Another resident, Tim Holt, said he had concerns about stormwater drainage.

In his explanation, Simmons said the stormwater portion of the plan would have multiple lines feeding into one central line that would feed stormwater into a basin in the northwest corner. Holt said there are already some issues of water drainage in the area, and adding development stormwater to that may create more problems.

“If you're going to put a pond there, it's got to handle all the water that's already coming down there, not just coming from the development,” he said.

Holt also took issue with the cars that would likely come and go from the proposed two entrances, one on Highfield Road and another on South Duffy Road.

“Every car that's going to turn right is going to shine their lights into my home,” he said. “Any car that turns left would shine their lights into my neighbor's home.”

A commission could revisit the development's subdivision request at its next meeting Jan. 5.