Comprehensive Plan: Back To The Drawing Boards

Updated 12/16/08: The Granville Township Trustees told tonight’s McPeek Lodge crowd of over 40 residents that they would hold a series of monthly “workshops” in the new year to address the many problems in the latest version of the Comprehensive Plan. This decision came after several residents cataloged their objections during the sometimes heated discussion with the trustees. Alison Terry, Granville Village Planner presented the trustees with a list of all of the errors and inconsistencies identified by Village staff and suggested that once the changes had been made, the Trustees should meet with the Village and hold a joint hearing. “It is, after all, a joint plan,” she told the trustees.

The first question after Trustee Wes Sargent asked for input was, “What property owner stands to make money with the changes in the proposed plan?”

The proposed new Comprehensive Plan slashes the amount of township land covered by the five-acre rule by about one-third, according to a map of proposed future land use. The Plan proposed creating a new township zoning category called “Suburban Residential” that would include “up to 2 single-family homes per acre, and possibly townhouses at 2 to 4 units per acre. This represents a potential twenty-fold increase in density

Trustee Sargent responded to the question by asking, “You want to be more specific?”

“Why do you want to do this?” he was asked. He didn’t answer.

Bill Wernet, former Village Councilman listed several problems he found with the plan including:

1. The new zoning classification, “Suburban Residential” permits up to 4 units per acre where the current maximum is one unit per 5 acres.

2. The Denison BioReserve is shown as “Institutional” and thus, could be developed.

3. The 1998 Comprehensive Plan mandated a maximum building of 10,000 square feet. The proposed plan has no mandate.

4. A new “town center” is proposed for the Fern Hill area.

5. The area at Bellview is slated for dense development.

6. The Cherry Valley Road area is to be a Gateway District with dense residential and commercial development.

Wernet received a round of applause from the crowd.

Trustee Sargent said, “This is not zoning. This is a guide. We have no desire to increase zoning.”

Trustee Bill Habig then said, “There’s a misunderstanding in the language of Chapter 2 and we intend to clear that up.”

Habig didn’t indicate how it would be cleared up, by whom, or if there would be another public hearing to review the new language before it is adopted by the Trustees.

“Were going to have a zoning code review with Poggemeyer that’s underway now,” he said. (Poggemeyer Design Group is a national planning and design firm that has a joint contract with both the Village of Granville and Granville Township to update the Comprehensive Plan.)

Wernet tried to respond, but Sargent said they should move on to someone else.

Later Wernet told The Granville Press that “Under Ohio Revised Code, townships must have a zoning code that conforms to the comprehensive plan.” “Therefore, writing a comprehensive plan is, in effect, zoning,” Wernet said.

Trustee Abraham told the audience that he had attended a lot of the steering committee meetings and said, “I am not for residential growth at all.”

Alison Terry, Granville Village Planner presented the trustees with a list of all of the errors and inconsistencies identified by Village staff and said, “Once the changes have been made, we suggest you have a joint meeting with the Village and hold a joint public hearing.”

“It is, after all, a joint plan,” she told the trustees.

Clarke Berdan, President of the Granville School Board said, “Our plan should reflect what we’re working towards.” He said that it would be a mistake to drop the 5-acre minimum and that doing so would seriously harm the schools.

“I would hate to see a comprehensive plan that is driving towards something we don’t want,” he said.

Fellow school board member, Tony Beckerly said, “We don’t see any reason to change the one house on 5 acres rule.”

Scot Prebles, school superintendent urged the trustees to keep the 5-acre minimum. He told the group that increasing the number of residences will cost the taxpayers approximately $2000 per year per residence.

“No Growth! No Growth!” he cheered.

Co-chair of the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, Constance Barsky told the meeting that the committee had last met on October 7 and had sent a list of needed corrections and map changes to Poggemeyer. She said Poggemeyer has so far not made the corrections.

She said that the Village planned to have public hearings after the corrections have been received from Poggemeyer. Barsky went on to suggest that after receiving the materials from Poggemeyer, perhaps the steering committee should meet and set up a series of public meetings.

The Trustees seemed to agree with this suggestion. Trustee Abraham had earlier in the evening suggested that they hold once-a-month work sessions with the public to work on the plan.

Frank Boffa asked the trustees why they hadn’t made the public more aware of what the plan contained. He said he believed that if The Granville Press hadn’t been reporting, few would be at the meeting.

Boffa also wondered why the trustees didn’t know that people would be upset about the change in the 5-acre minimum. “Why the Hell would you do this?” he asked.

Trustee Sargent said, “We didn’t write this,” and Trustee Abraham agreed. They blamed Poggemeyer for the content of the document.

It was clear from the public comments that most people were upset with the proposed abandoning of the 5-acre minimum for residential development.

The proposed Comprehensive Plan offers no reason for abandoning the five-acre rule, which currently applies to all township land, except for Owens and the Paramount property. It gives no estimate on how much land is freed from the five-acre rule and how many new homes and students could result. From the land use map, the change appears to open up a couple of thousand acres to dense development and permits, in theory, a few thousand new homes not allowed under the current Plan.

Consideration of the Plan was on the meeting’s agenda under Old Business where the Trustees could have adopted it. However, according to Township Fiscal Officer, Norm Kennedy, “…no action was taken with respect to the plan other than it was decided some of the information was not presented in the manner it should have been and needs to be corrected to reflect the desires of the community.” 

Kennedy also told The Granville Press, “There was discussion about the need for some additional meetings but nothing is scheduled.”

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