UNION TOWNSHIP, Ohio (WKRC) – Union Township residents in the Pepper Ridge neighborhood are calling for action after a forest behind their homes was cut down in March, saying the change left their community more vulnerable when a storm soon afterward brought down several trees.
The land is owned by Doug Evans, a business owner convicted in 2020 of defrauding the City of Cincinnati. There has been a long-running fight over Evans’ lot on Mount Carmel Road, but residents said it was only weeks ago that trees were cut going up the hill, right up to the Pepper Ridge property line.
Resident Bradford Grant said clearing and grading the hillside changed how wind moves through the area.
“When you clear the hillside, and then you grade it and smooth it off, it kind of acts like a wing—almost like a plane wing—and all the wind is coming up over top. That’s creating wind and sound that’s funneling through the neighborhood at a pretty exuberant rate,” Grant said…