Nearly 900 Lancaster residents examined the newest design changes to the Lancaster Bypass project at an open-house meeting Tuesday and Wednesday.

The Public Involvement Meeting, which was sponsored by the Ohio Department of Transportation, was the third community meeting about the project in recent history.

Although the $113 million, 14-mile, four-lane bypass originally was proposed in the 1970s, ODOT will not begin its construction until later this year.

The entire bypass will be built in three phases and will be finished by the end of the construction season in 2005.

At this point in the project, the majority of the community has endorsed the bypass plan, said Mike Cope, ODOT 5th District deputy director.

"The only people we have to deal with now are the people who will be negatively affected (by the bypass) - the people whose houses will be taken by the construction and the people who thought they'd be in the country, but now will be living next to an interstate," he said.

ODOT Realty Specialist Christine Bailey said the almost 40 residents who will be required to move for the bypass construc-tion were notified at the two-day meeting.

In fairness, Bailey said ODOT will appraise and buy the homes at a fair market value. Moreover, the department's representatives will help the residents move.

The people who live within the limits of the first phase of construction will have to move sometime in 2001. The second phase residents will have to leave in 2002, and the third phase residents will have to be out in 2003, she said.

Although the residents will receive a check from ODOT as soon they are ready to move, the required sale date for each phase will not be set until the last house is sold, she said.

Lancaster resident Julie Lucas said she was surprised by the number of homes and people the bypass will affect.

"I've heard from people that a lot of farmers are going to be affected," she said. "I think they're taking a lot of farmland."

But according to ODOT's environmental studies, the bypass route will not have many negative environmental impacts.

This conclusion is the result of several studies aimed at identifying the potential effects of traffic, noise, archaeological resources, architectural resources, wetlands, streams and farmlands.

Although some people were interested in environmental issues, Cope said the majority of the residents had the same concerns as Lancaster resident Ann Young - how the bypass would affect them individually.

"I came to see how it would affect us," Young said. "I wanted to know if we could still travel the same way to get to places what would happen to the old (US Route) 33."