Township Trustees Agree To Help Owens Corning Fund Development
Owens Corning is preparing its site for development. It appears that Granville Township is helping Owens Corning seek a state grant of $5 million to demolish buildings to make way for development.
According to the minutes of the Township Trustees meeting of April 9, 2008:
"Trustee Habig reported that he has been in discussion with representatives of Owens Corning regarding the possibility of participating in the Ohio Department of Development “Job Ready Sites Program”. They wish to seek a $5,000,000 grant to demolish buildings and prepare an undeveloped portion of their site on Columbus Road for development. This is a highly competitive statewide program. Last year Licking County, Pataskala, Etna Township and Prologis worked together to obtain one of these grants for the Prologis site. It is necessary to have a public entity be the applicant. There will be no cost to the township as Owens plans to do the on-site work and that will serve as the local match for the grant. It will be necessary to have a commitment of sewer and perhaps additional water for the site. There is a possibility of these utilities being provided by either the Village of Granville or Southwest Water and Sewer District."
Following discussion, a resolution was presented and passed unanimously:
A RESOLUTION, ON APRIL 9, 2008, AUTHORIZING GRANVILLE TOWNSHIP, LICKING COUNTY, OHIO, TO FILE AN APPLICATION TO THE STATE OF OHIO, DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT, TO SUPPORT AN APPLICATION FOR ASSISTANCE UNDER THE OHIO JOB READY SITES PROGRAM.
WHEREAS, the State of Ohio, Department of Development, provides financial assistance to local governments for the purpose of developing speculative sites for future economic development opportunities;
WHEREAS, Granville Township desires to participate by receiving financial assistance for the Granville Science and Technology Complex under the Ohio Job Ready Sites Program;
WHEREAS, Granville Township has the authority to apply for financial assistance and to administer the amounts received from the State of Ohio, Department of Development, through its Oho Job Ready Sites Program; and
WHEREAS, Granville Township must direct and authorize the Site Improvement Project Manager to act in connection with the application and to provide such additional information as may be required.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Granville Township Board of Trustees of Licking County, Ohio, on a motion by Trustee Wes Sargent that:
Section 1. The Granville Township Board of Trustees authorizes Trustee William Habig, as the official representative (the “Site Improvement Project Manager”) of the Granville Science and Technology Complex, to file an application to participate in the State of Ohio, Department of Development’s, Ohio Job Ready Sites Program, and provide all information and documentation required in the application for submission.
Section 2. The Granville Township Board of Trustees hereby approves filing an application for financial assistance under the Ohio Job Ready Sites Program.
Section 3. The Granville Township Board of Trustees hereby understands and agrees that participation in the program will require compliance with program guidelines and assurances.
and a second by Trustee Fred Abraham, with Trustee Sargent yes, Trustee Abraham yes and Trustee Habig yes the aforementioned resolution passed unanimously.
The proposed update to the Comprehensive Plan calls for a traditional neighborhood development on the Owens Corning site with a possible new town center - the first outside of downtown Granville.
The Village of Granville currently supplies water to the site and a Granville sewer line runs to Kendal nearby.
Ownes S.W. Licking
Current Village thinking and policy is that no water and sewer without annexation. The village refused to provide water and sewer to the Dow site. Thats the fact-Bellman came up at the last minute and wanted to discuss providing water, but the Trustees did not fall for that trap. They controlled their destiny be associating with SW Licking. Why would one want to deal with the Village Officials and Residents who always say yes but mean NO!!
Stay away from the Village Voters-they will lead you on and on and then slam the door on you!
What would you think of a group of people who at first refused to provide water and sewer to the schools. Pretty sad if you ask me.
bnji
"Just get over it"
dryfly3,
The village has fairly recently extended water and sewer to Kendal without annexation. There is no reason to assume that the village would not extend water and sewer to the Owens site. After all, it already supplies water to Owens and the sewer is right next door at Kendal. The sewer line was even specifically designed to support additional sewer customers. In fact, Kendal will receive monies back from the amounts it paid for the sewer connection when others, such as Owens, connect to village sewer.
The village did not refuse to provide water and sewer to the Dow site. The truth is that no one wanted to pay the $2 million it would have cost to extend the Granville lines to the Dow site. The village did not want to pay the $2 million. The township did not want to pay the $2 million. The business involved did not want to pay the $2 million.
About the other point... With minimal true public participation, the school board at the time picked an unfortunate and unpopular site. The village council heard all the concerns and acted accordingly in an attempt to get the school board to rethink their site selection. Unfortunately for the community, the arrogance of the then school board would not allow the board to reconsider its decision. Remember the sophisticated approach of the school board president at the time? His comment of "why don't you people just get over it" (referring to the community reaction to the unpopular site) was correctly nailed by Alan Miller (now editor of the Columbus Dispatch) as an approach that would "tear Granville apart." It did. The school board went on to lose multiple levies because the voters were upset about the siting of the intermediate school and the complete arrogance of the then school board.
Now that the members of that school board are gone, most people are working very hard to pull things back together. It would be helpful if all would work to avoid the divisions and arrogance of the past rather than resurrecting them.
In the words of Lew: dryfly3, "just get over it."
$5 million for O-C
What's not clear to me is what's the $5 million to be spent on? It doesn't cost that much to demolish buildings.
Let's get the facts straight
Brent,
As I remember it, the reason Dow went with water from Southwest Licking was the cost to extend water from Southwest Licking with their large pipes close to the Dow site was much less than the cost to extend from the village lines. The village was willing to provide water to Dow, but neither the village nor the township wanted to pay the $2 million that it would have cost to extend village lines to Dow.
Annexation was not a factor at all just as it wasn't a factor with the relatively recent village extension of water to Kendal and as it wasn't with the original extension of village water to Owens Corning.
Hal
Owens..
"Annexation" was a factor for the village in the Paramount water decision in that they had (have?) a policy against extending utitities without annexation.
Water to Owens was done in a different era (i.e. way before Plunkett, etc.) Kendal only happened after years of debate.
Let's not leave readers with an incorrect impression
Brent,
It is important that readers not be left with an incorrect impression. I note with interest your wording "annexation was a factor...in that they had a policy against extending..." While certainly that was the general policy, that general policy was not applied to the Dow site.
The village was willing to extend utilities to the Dow site. The reality was that it would have cost at least four times as much to get water from Granville as it cost to get water from Southwest Licking due to the greater distance pipes would have had to have been run.
The Kendal utilities were willingly provided without annexation. Although there certainly was negotiation dealing with who was going to pay for what.
Owens..
You might want to discuss your "willingly" term with those
who were involved at Kendal.
We wouldn't want anyone to get the wrong impression..would we?
What the meaning of the word "is" is
Without getting into the meaning of what the word "is" is, Kendal got the water and sewer and the village even picked up hundreds of thousands of dollars in extra costs that were beyond those originally estimated for the job.
But, the real question is does it make sense to allow Southwest Licking to bring water and sewer deep into our township? Do we really want to risk becoming Pataskala east?
And, does it make sense to rezone tax-paying commercial property into school draining residential property?
Owens..
make that utilities..how about adding spell check?
Why is Habig being singled out when the vote was unanimous?
I have never known Wes to be shy about stating his opinion.
Let's get the facts more straight
The Village fought the extension to the Dow site (DOW Chemical was long gone) the whole way, and SW Licking was eager to provide the utilities to offset some of their huge start up costs.
Annexation may not have played a role in the process, but dealing with the politics of the then Village Council was in fact a HUGE part of the decision to eliminate them from the mix.
Village Council did not want to spend millions in tax dollars
NoSpin,
You are correct that Southwest Licking was eager to provide the utilities to offset startup costs.
However, on the rest our recollections differ. The village was willing to extend water to Dow. The rub was village council was not willing to pay the $2 million from taxpayer dollars to fund the extension of the lines. The village has always required that the developer pay for the extension of water and sewer lines. Council had felt, and I believe continues to feel, that those who profit from development should pay the costs of development.
But that is all history. The bottom line is that it makes no sense to allow Southwest Licking deep into the township with water and sewer lines. We don't need to have Pataskala here.
It also makes no sense to rezone from tax-paying commercial to what donj correcting calls "school-killing" residential. Lord knows we already have more than enough land zoned residential in this school district.
Are they Granville Trustees or Pataskala Trustees?
Brent makes a good point when he says Owens Corning has been a good member of the community. But, of course, Granville residents have been good members of the community, too.
The issue isn't Owens Corning vs. Granville. It's the Trustees vs. Granville.
Actually, I bet it's just Trustee Habig vs. Granville. I find it very hard to believe that Wes and Fred want Southwest Licking Sewer District -- the people who brought you Pataskala! -- to roll into Granville Township. I don't believe Wes and Fred want this, even as an ill-conceived bargaining chip. Wes and Fred are straight arrows (or so I've believe) and have deep roots here. My fear is that they are naive. (Look at what happened to Fred on the garage.) I hope they will stand up soon.
southwest licking sewer in granville
I have supported the trustees for a long time and am as far as you can get from being a Kittyhead. But this Southwest Licking thing is what gives credibility to the no-growth Kittyheads. Their basic rap on "our side" is that we secretly want to pave Granville into a big real estate development. Hogwash but effective. Do we really think the public will side with us on the wisdom of bringing the Southwest Licking sewer district deep into the township? I personally think it's playing with fire. Look at what happened to Lima Township. Their trustees had all the best intentions, too. I think we all can agree we don't want Granville to become the next Pataskala. This Southwest Licking talk (and that's all it is) confirm the paranoid fantasies that some had when trustees brought SWLWSD in to serve Paramount. They said the REAL goal of the trustees was to pave the way for intense development throughout the township. Now we're proving them right. Wes needs to step forward to be the voice on growth issues. Habig may be smart, but he's new with a tin ear to politics. Let's not give Kitty and her litter a campaign gift. If the issue makes ME consider voting for her, we've got a problem. If it's habig/SWLWSD vs. kitty/Granville, I hate to say it but I'd hold my nose and vote for her.
Owens..
FYI. The SWLWSD is already serving Granville Township.
In the early 70s Dow Chemical bought the property that is now Granville Business Park. They requested water from the village and that request was denied, so they drilled wells. Later, when they sold the property, those wells weren't adequate for the development of a business park and Paramount Financial. The village would not extend water without annexation, so Granville and Union Townships entered into an agreement with SWLWSD to provide water so that
this area could continue to contribute to Granville's tax base. The lines were sized to provide for future
extensions, but only with the approval of Granville Township. In assisting Owens with this grant request, it only makes sense to leave this open as a possibility. I'm pretty certain that Bill Habig is speaking for the entire board in this.
Trustee(s) playing with fire
Brent,
Are you certain Habig is speaking for all the trustees? If that is true, it would cause me significant concern. I don't sense that Habig understands Granville and what Granville wants very well.
Maybe moreover is right and Wes and Fred are naively following Habig. I would guess Habig talks a good game (he could not have survived in his job without that ability).
Going in the wrong direction
Good point Don.
You are exactly correct. Why convert tax-paying land into resource sucking land?
If people want to build a mixed use residential/town center development, then they should use land that has been zoned residential. That would be improving the situation, rather than making it worse.
I wondered about that draft comprehensive plan. It sounds like it may need a bit of tweaking.
Hey Brent
Why don't you just make your arguments and not resort to name calling? Talking about "naysayers" and "Kitty backers" doesn't contribute to the discussion.
Why do you name-call? Don't have any good points to make?
Owens
Alicia sounds like a "Kitty backer" as well.
Like I said, keep up the good work Bill. Owens deserves our support after 50 years of being a good corporate neighbor!
Last thing we need is more land zoned for school-killing houses
Brent,
You are not helping your cause with your approach.
But, in any event, most of us would agree that Owens has been an decent neighbor. Although most would also agree they have at times been at best an unreliable employer (just ask the class of 1986).
However, I think the real question is whether or not the schools need a bunch more houses with all the kids those houses would bring. Just because someone has been a good neighbor does not mean you help them destroy our schools.
Looking at it from the other direction, why rezone land that is commercial/research and development to yet more land zoned residential? That is going from land that will tend to pay more in taxes than it consumes in resources to land that will cost more for schools than it will pay in taxes. That is going in exactly the wrong direction. We already have too much land zoned residential. Why add to our problems by zoning even more land to be covered by houses?
If someone wants to have a development with a bunch of new houses, let them use land that is zoned for building houses. In trying to be creative, let's not dig ourselves out deeper.
Don
Granville sewer ONLY
There should be no question that Granville -- and only Granville -- supplies water and sewer to the Owens Corning site. It is absolutely irresponsible for Trustee Habig -- an appointed trustee who moved here a year and a half ago-- to even suggest that he's going to try to put Southwest Licking sewer in competition with Granville. Our community leaders created an oversized system years ago at great expense so that we could control our own future. Ohio law gives community's few options to control their destiny. Sewer is the most important one. For some interloper to think he's the kingpin that now rules the nest is ridiculous. Where is Wes Sargent and Fred Abraham when they're needed? It's their job to set limits on some appointed guy -- who runs a real estate development consulting firm, of course -- who seems not to have any idea how hard Granville's elected officials (trustees, too) have worked over the years to protect the identity of our community.
Thanks Bill, but we don't want Columbus or Pataskala here
The township ought not be in the business of encouraging residential development. The last thing our schools and the Granville community needs is increased enrollment.
Bill Habig is following the path he took when he was executive director of the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission. A brief look at the poorly guided growth in Columbus and Franklin County shows his impact in that role.
Now he wants to do for Granville what he did for Columbus and Franklin County.
First he wants to build a township sewer plant. Then he wants to get a $5 million grant to help a residential developer.
But wait, there's more. He suggests bringing in the Southwest Licking Water and Sewer District to help. We all know how Southwest Licking Water and Sewer helped Pataskala.
Thanks, but no thanks, Bill.
Owens
Keep up the good work Bill! Owens has been a great neighbor to Granville for many many years and deserves our assistance now.
Keep SWLWSD in the mix for utilities. The village would kill any such development plans wrangling over annexation.
Meanwhile, the naysayers should wait for a few details before going off on the trustees. Sounds like "Kitty backers" to me.