WESTLAND AREA COMMISSION
January 16, 2002
Meeting
was called to order at 7:12 p.m.
Present were Daniel Province, chair; Betty Balthaser, Janice Collette,
Virginia Frank, Glen Hymer, JoEllen Locke, Mike McKay, Tom Morris, Jamie
Mueller, Jan Province, Shawn Thomas, Ric Weber, and Jeff Woodson. Mark Lehar and Mike Hurd were absent. Dorothy Jantzen was excused.
Balthaser
moved to approve the December 2001 minutes, Locke seconded. Approved.
Zoning Committee (McKay): There was no prior zoning meeting. One case to be considered here, two other cases have been tabled
until the next zoning meeting. Beth
Miller, counsel representing Bill Goldman, discussed zoning case #Z01-092,
proposal for 1140 Norton Rd. (south of Hall Rd. and east of Norton Rd.), and brought
copies of site plan, area plan, and the proposal document. This is an
approximately 1.4 acre lot. Three
integrated uses are proposed--a self-serve car wash, an auto parts/repair
retail outlet, and a drive thru snack/drink retail. There were questions about drainage; no retention pond is
planned, project will drain into existing drainage system. No hard alcohol will be sold at drive thru,
will sell beer and wine only. Hours of
operation will differ for all three retail operations: the car wash would
effectively be open 24 hours but overnight use would be very infrequent; the
drive thru would be open noon to midnight; the retail auto parts operation
would be open standard retail hours of 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. Parking to the side is for employees,
parking in front is for customers.
Signage has not been determined but will be placed on Norton Rd.
frontage. Commissioners had concerns about
traffic, but site is already commercial so traffic will be an issue regardless
of use. City planner Ray Brushard had
some concerns, talked about probable Norton Rd. widening in 2003-2005 and need
to leave space and consideration for this.
Across the street from this property is a day care, Westland Area
commission is concerned about having liquor sales within 300 feet of a day
care. This may be against city ordinance; Dan Province asked code enforcement
officer Danielle Weber in the audience if this was true. Weber said she wasn’t sure but would find
out. Buildings are exterior split block
or stucco on plan, WAC would probably not approve split block. City development commission doesn’t care
since the Westland Area has no architectural review plan, only WAC will
object. Miller agreed to add
restrictions for no adult book/entertainment, no gasoline sales, height of
outdoor product/promotional displays restricted to 3 feet high. Dan Province had a concern about people
driving straight out from car wash onto Lindbergh Ln. even though there is no
access. Dumpster screens are not
mentioned in plan as code now requires it, if dumpsters are added they would
have to have a screen. Dumpster are
limited to one side of development on the site plan.
A
speaker from the audience said he read that the city of Columbus has 25 square
feet of retail space for each person while Dallas has nine square feet. There is a new car wash on West Broad St.
making this one redundant, development should be considered in relation to what
you have. already have four car parts places in the area. Sensenbrenner has complained about the
appearance of West Broad St., filled with random development, time to look at
overall usage in the Westland Area.
Area commissions are designed to not have real authority, every decision
must be approved by a superior authority.
Dan
Province said he does not agree. The
Westland Area Commission has held up an 1100 acre rezoning on Galloway Rd. for
one year to look at development in the whole area, also have delayed apartments
on Postle Cemetery property now for four years. Province said it is often “the things you don’t see happen” that
are the commission’s successes.
Hurd
asked why is it necessary to change zoning from C4 to CPD. Miller explained that car washes are
typically C5 while the other retail is typically C4. City council usually doesn’t approve C5, so CPD is used for a
combination as it required a planned development. Dan Province explained that as a planned development they would
have to come back for approval if they tore the building down someday and
wanted to build something else.
Weber: probably goes to Development Commission in
February, can we recommend approval with stipulation that if Development
Commission changes the request it has to come back to WAC? Dan Province says we can do it but no
guarantee they would honor it. Weber
said he is tired of disapproving zonings or adding conditions and seeing the
city approve it anyway. Some discussion
followed about how commission members and the community could attend
Development Commission meeting to express opinions, but landowners have right to
develop their land and we must have legitimate issues to raise.
Voice
vote to approve zoning request with the condition that it doesn’t violate city
code regarding the possible limitation on having alcohol sales within 300 feet
of a daycare along with other concerns discussed above listed as conditions. Voice
vote not Approved. Dan Province
reminded everyone that there are no conditions attached now that the proposal
is not approved.
Township
zoning: Hymer reported that Prairie Twp. just swore in two new trustees; both
are interested in Darby Creek and related issues.
Some
discussion of zoning and traffic issues followed. The same person from the audience spoke about how 900-1200 sq. ft
starter houses being built in the area are “future slums”; there is a need for
more quality development in Westland Area, houses are being overbuilt like
retail.
New
WAC intern Russell James from the city is working on some land use maps for the
Hellbranch area. Intern will work to
consider overall land use on Galloway Rd. and the need for through streets to
send traffic to Sullivant Av.
Community Outreach Committee
(Morris):
nothing to report
Community Relations
Committee (Balthaser): nothing to report.
Economic Development
Committee (McKay): To follow up from last month, some discussion about what can be done
about W. Broad St. area to consider revitalization. Some discussion of creating a TIF; last month when Governor Taft
signed a supplemental budget bill part of it was to change text on TIFs to make
them more attractive to local groups.
Prairie Township has two new trustees; it might be worth pursuing with
them.
Locke
said someday wouldn’t it be nice to have W. Broad with sidewalks and median, so
it would look more like other parts of town.
We need cooperation of the various local governments and jurisdictions
to improve the area, clean up New Rome.
Dan Province said the Westland Area needs news other than negative news
about New Rome, positive news and cooperation or the area will go down the
toilet.
Education Committee
(Collette): nothing to report
Health and Safety Committee
(Weber):
nothing to report.
Parks and Recreation
Committee (Hurd): Locke said they are hoping for
final parks report by next month in a format to share with the rest of the
commission. Senior exercise program at
St. Paul’s church has 25 members in the morning class, can’t take more at this
time since this is a full house. A
Saturday senior exercise class has been started with a small turnout so far.
Nomination Committee (Jantzen):
nothing to report. Dan Province said we need to try to get more commission members.
We have 16 now, one appointee has to be from area clergy, the other four can be
appointed. Some people become
commissioners and then quit after their concern is resolved. February is the last month to appoint before
the annual WAC election.
Old Business: none
New Business: Danielle Weber introduced
herself as the new community liaison for the Westland Area. She is also code enforcement officer. She is not sure exactly what the liaison job
will do. She can be contacted at
645-0328.
The
meeting was adjourned at 8:10 p.m.
WAC
Oct 17, 2001