WESTLAND AREA COMMISSION

July 17, 2002 (revised August 21 as per WAC)

 

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.  Present were Daniel Province, chair, Betty Balthaser, Dustin Hall, Glen Hymer, Mike McKay, Tom Morris, Jamie Mueller, Jan Province, Shawn Thomas, Darlene Weber, Rick Weber, Jeff Woodson, and Ken Yant.  Janice Collette, Virginia Frank, Mike Hurd, Dorothy Jantzen, and JoEllen Locke were excused.  Also present were Janine Aeh, Jeff Brown, Cliff Browning, Sgt. David Eing, Marion Hymer, Samantha Schuler, Rick Tilton, Danielle Weber, and others.

 

J. Province announced that there was an error in the minutes for June 2002.  The individual identified as “Mary Smith” was actually Mary Flint.  Hymer moved to accept the corrected minutes.  Several people seconded.  Approved.

 

Janine Aeh stated that she and Rick Tilton had come on behalf of the Neighborhood Pride program.  Tilton, the chairman of Neighborhood Pride, came to discuss the results of the project that had been done in the Westland area in 2000.

 

Tilton said he is now the Neighborhood Pride Coordinator in the Division of Neighborhood Services, within the Department of Development.  The area targeted by Neighborhood Pride in 2000 was bounded by Sullivant on the north, Hall on the south, I-270 on the east, and Norton on the west.  This was the first year of Neighborhood Pride.  The program has evolved significantly since then. 

 

There were about 100 orders on violations in this pride district.  Most of them have since become compliant.  A lot of them were zoning issues concerning vehicles.  There were six citations for semis parked in driveways.  Three gravel driveways were removed.  Six severely deteriorated driveways were repaired on Cherry Creek Parkway.  Two driveway expansions were removed.  Code removed 67 graphics and fliers from poles, mostly along Hall Road and Norton Road.  There were two success stories: On opposite ends of Cherry Creek North and South there were citations written for yard conditions and vehicles, and both went to court and are now in compliance.  The city swept 90 curb miles of street, collected 2¾ tons of bulk trash, replaced 36 trash containers, pruned 57 trees in the right of way, and cleaned and mowed Freedom Park and Green Countrie Park.  They also inspected 311 catch-basins and cleaned eight of them, inspected and replaced 12 street lights, and painted 215 fire hydrants. 

 

Last year, a Neighborhood Pride survey was taken at a WAC meeting, and Tilton distributed copies a summary of the results of the survey.  There were 22 respondents.  Among the priorities that were cited were excessive speed (a complaint that was found in every neighborhood in Columbus), a need to bring street lights to unlit areas (the city has a plan to bring street lights to all of Columbus by 2020), and a need to deal with stormwater flooding (which is another long-term issue that is being worked on in several areas of the city).  There was mention of a need for a recreation center (another big-ticket item that is a long-term issue). 

 

There were a lot of short-term issues that they can address.  On Monday night, City Council enacted legislation to support initiatives the mayor introduced in his State of the City speech to slow drivers down.  One of these is to increase the fines for speeding in school zones.  With City Council's approval, that will now become a fourth-degree misdemeanor punishable by $250 and thirty days in jail.  The mayor asked, and the Council approved the purchase of ten new speed trailers.  (This city has only two at this time).  Also, the mayor wants to set aside in the next bond sale $1.2 million for the purchase of traffic calming devices, such as speed humps.  Council also approved another initiative on Monday night which will provide for a more flexible policy for the placement of stop signs. 

 

Tilton asked everyone to notify the community liaison if any of the neighborhood priorities change.  Aeh reminded everyone that Danielle Weber is a code enforcement officer, as well as a community liaison. 

 

Province said that there is a longstanding traffic problem at Baytree and LeClerc, where there is an oddly-configured intersection.  Five years ago, the city promised to study the problem, but nothing much came of it.  A stop sign was added, and for awhile, police ticketed cars that ignored the sign.  After a couple of weeks, traffic was again going too fast.

 

Tilton said that Mary Webster should be consulted.  However, it is the responsibility of the drivers to monitor their own speed.  He has seen drivers fly over speed humps, too, particularly on Carolyn Avenue.  If you go 40 mph over speed humps, you don't even feel them; you fly over them, literally.

 

McKay asked whether any of the traffic calming devices City Council approved are earmarked specifically for the Westland area.

 

No.  But if the $1.2 million bond issue is approved, then maybe additional traffic calming devices may be ordered, and some of them may be installed in this area.

 

A neighbor asked for specifics regarding the city's plans to address the stormwater flooding issue.  Will the trunk line be increased?  The trunk line is full, Hellbranch is full, and the Darby is full.  He would like to see the plan.

 

Greg Davies is the person to contact in Sewers and Drains.  He is executive assistant to Director Dowd.  645-8515 is his telephone number.  He can answer specific questions.  When the preliminary plan is complete, Province can request a copy of it.

 

Weber said that, if the mayor is so anxious to slow speeders down, and he is spending so much money on devices to show him how fast he is going, that won't stop him from speeding.  More police protection will stop speeders. 

 

Tilton said that Safety was the only department that did not receive a budget cut last year.

 

 Will there be any more Neighborhood Pride activities?

 

There probably will not be another targeted sweep.  However, specific problems should be reported to the neighborhood liaison.

 

If we receive no response from Davies, should we report that fact to the neighborhood liaison?

 

If that happens, report the problem to Cliff Browning at 645-7946.

 

Province reported that the Columbus Associates Meeting will be held at 50 West Gay Street, on the third floor, next Wednesday, from 6:00 to 7:00pm.  Parking on the street is free after 6:00.  All WAC members should attend, because City Council members will be there.  If you are prepared, you will be permitted a couple of minutes to talk.

 

Tilton said that the police station parking lot will be open and available to us.

 

Province said he cannot attend the meeting.  However, someone needs to ask how many new police classes are scheduled.  The city recently spent $600,000 to create a plan for redistribution of police officers for maximum efficiency, and Chief Jackson chose to ignore it.  What are they going to do about it?  We have questions about speeding and traffic calming and noise.  The city is spraying for mosquitoes in other neighborhoods, but not in Westland; the Health Department said they will get around to Westland's parks when they get the chance, and they have no plan to spray Bolton Field.  We need to complain about that. 

 

Zoning Committee (McKay):   The first issue concerns 6151 Hall Road.  This is the Slane property on the southwest corner of Galloway and Hall.  The site is currently zoned Rural, and the request is to rezone it CPD.  The proposed use according to the Westland Area Plan is residential, three to five units per acre.   The WAC zoning committee heard this proposal last week and voted to table it, pending the replies to several questions.  Jeff Brown from Smith and Hale is here to present the issue.

 

Brown said the proposal he is bringing before WAC is a shopping center.  The Westland Area Plan calls for a Village Center.  There is an existing shopping center nearby that is under development.  There is a residential development that wraps around it, and a church nearby, and a couple of barns.  The city said that they would like the applicant to adopt the development standards that were associated with the existing shopping center.   They therefore looked at the building materials and landscaping plan in use there, and incorporated those standards into their plan for their piece on the other side.  The shopping center is done in a combination of split-face block and stucco, with a mansard roof.  

 

Brown's client has a lease with Big Bear, which is doing a new store.  Brown was told that the existing Big Bear store on West Broad Street will remain open; it will not be affected by the new Big Bear store, or by this rezoning issue. 

 

From a traffic standpoint, they intend to instruct trucks to come in off I-270 at the Georgesville Road exit and to come down Hall Road.  They did a traffic report, as required.  The applicant had to deal with both the city and the county, because of the split jurisdiction.  The conclusion was that a three-lane section of Hall Road would pick up the first curb cut, so that there would be a left turn lane, and then they would extend a three-lane section of Galloway Road to their furthest curb cut, to create another left turn lane.  They propose that their first curb cut onto Galloway would be right in, right out, matching what's on the other side of the street.  The main entrance has nothing corresponding, as the backsides of houses face the road on the other side of the street.  They will be creating a left turn lane for the existing shopping center.

 

There is a possibility that there will be a gas station on the corner.  “Gas station” is not the proper term; they are “fueling stations” because they have a small place for an attendant, a few vending machines, and some automotive supplies for sale, such as windshield wiper fluid.  Mostly, it is just a series of pumps. 

 

The proposal is not scheduled yet with the Development Commission, so the earliest the plan can be heard by them is the September meeting. 

 

Has Brown spoken to the church folks yet about this proposal?

 

No.  He does intend to speak to them, though. 

 

Will something be done to block the view of the air-conditioning units from the front of the church?

 

Yes, there is language in the text about screening mechanicals.  Item D5 on page three states that rooftop mechanicals shall be screened from view.

 

What did the client say about building materials?

 

He mentioned brick to the applicant, and he did not receive a definite yes or no.  However, the shopping center across the street is split-face block and stucco, and it looks fine.  The Kroger store has an element of split-face block on it.  There is a fine line between what the CVS Pharmacy stores do, and what works.  At this point, the developer wants to keep flexibility.

 

Morris asked Brown whether he obtained answers to any of the questions the zoning committee posed to him last week.

 

Yes, they have a lease.  He has not heard back yet from the engineers regarding sight-lines from the front entrance, due to the curve of the road.  R.D. Zande is the traffic engineer, and they didn't think there was any problem that couldn't be solved in terms of development.  They might have to flatten some ground.  They felt they could meet all the distance requirements in terms of sight lines.

 

What about buffering and mounding?

 

The developer was asked to match the landscaping of the other strip center development, which is more trees than anything else.  The requirement was for eight trees for every 100 feet of frontage.  They picked up the same language from that development.  Brown did notice that the Kroger store has a three-rail white fence around it, and so does a nearby housing development, so they may go back and revisit that.

 

Morris said that, as you come down Hall Road, you see the backsides of houses.  That's why mounding, particularly around the gas station, would be a good idea.

 

Brown said he is getting tired of mounding.  You can accomplish the same purposes with a hedge.  The idea is to screen houses from headlights.

 

The idea is to screen the backside of the gas station building from the view of the residents of Galloway Ridge.

 

They will address the possibility of traffic coming out of the main entrance and shining headlights into the rear windows of houses directly across the street.  However, he isn't sure that mounding is always the answer.

 

Brown pulled the zoning text for the Kroger.  Actually, the main Kroger store is zoned C-4, so they didn't have to do anything.  What they did bring in was the corner with the fueling station.  The signage section in that zoning does comply with C-4.

 

Province said they sent a letter, agreeing to put all signage on the one sign, the one that says “Kroger.”  They will not put any signage on the canopy at all.

 

Brown said that the price panels are on the main Kroger sign, and that appears to be their new standard sign.   They do have “Kroger” on the Galloway side of the canopy.  He doesn't know whether it is illuminated.

 

What about ground-level signage?  The limitation text doesn't address those signs.

 

The limitation text reflects standard language that the city now uses.  The shopping center across the street has free-standing signs on each frontage, and it's the name of the center and four tenant panels.  Brown will find out how big they are, and what Kroger is doing.

 

Province said that the Village Center Concept, it said there should be room for a bus stop.

 

Brown said he missed that when he read it.  There would have to be an area of heavy-duty pavement.

 

Province said that, if such language isn't in the text, the manager of the store could decide to prohibit buses.

 

Big Bear belongs to Penn Traffic, and it has been having financial difficulties.  Weber doesn't believe they really intend to keep the West Broad Street store open.  This will make it difficult for nearby residents who don't own cars.

 

How big is the parcel?  And how many major grocery stores are built on two-lane country roads in this area?

 

Brown said he was told that the Big Bear store on Broad Street will remain open. 

 

Province said that grocery stores have a two-mile radius.  Any farther, and your ice cream melts.  The Big Bear store on West Broad Street needs to expand, but it has no room for expansion.  The new site is more than two miles away.  Province doubts the company wants to lose the Lincoln Village foot traffic.

 

Brown said that the site measures 9.37 acres.  Hall and Galloway, right now, are two-lane roads.  That's why they were required to do the traffic study, and that's why they are being required to widen the roads to accommodate the left turn lanes. 

 

Morris asked whether Brown will come back with answers to the unanswered questions.

 

Brown said no.  He has answered most of the zoning committee's questions.  He will look up Kroger's commitments regarding signage and landscaping, and he will take them to the applicant, along with WAC's desires.  The city told the applicant that they like the development standards that were implemented across the street, and they asked the applicant to adopt them.  That's where it stands now.

 

Morris asked whether the applicant has a lease with Big Bear.

 

Yes.

 

J. Province said that Brown has not given us definitive answers regarding building materials on the façade.  He hasn't talked to the church personnel yet.  He doesn't have a real answer regarding sight-lines.  He hasn't said anything definite about mounding.  Buses are a new question. 

 

McKay asked about WAC's preferences regarding mounding.

 

J. Province said that we talked about opaque mounding on the corner, in front of the backside of the gas station.  The backsides of gas station buildings tend to accumulate junk, and that would be visible from the entire intersection.

 

D. Province said there should be a church on the corner, but we are stuck with a gas station.

 

Morris said that it should be the aim of the commission to seek more natural covering, such as vegetation and mounding, not artificial-looking fencing.  We have talked to every developer who has ever come in here, about that.

 

Province said that, in many cases, no one waters the top of the mound, so the trees die.  If the trees are planted at natural ground level, rainwater won't roll away from the trees.

 

Brown said he will write specifics.

 

Province asked Brown to go down Holt Road, by the Lowe's store, and look across the street from there.  They did a good job of screening the apartments from traffic coming out of that store.

 

Hymer said that Kroger is limited to outside sale of automotive-related items only.

 

Brown said he has that specific language now.

 

D. Province moved to table the issue.  J. Province seconded.  Approved.

 

Brown said he will return in August.

 

A neighbor said that Brown's site plan maps are too small.  They should be laid out on a table prior to the meeting, so that people can get close enough to see them, so that they can figure out what he's talking about.

 

D. Province reminded the residents that nothing is set in concrete until the final plat.

 

Every time we meet him he changes his mind.  In his last proposal, he talked about building starter homes.  WAC got a victory of sorts.  The developer is building the same houses he originally intended, but he raised their price.

 

Mueller asked whether the Westland Area Plan asks for residential zoning or commercial.

 

McKay said that the Plan calls for a Village Center surrounded by residential development, three to five per acre.

 

It hardly matters.  The city has been ignoring the Westland Plan for eight years.  It's a dumb place to put a grocery store.  He is not “expanding the road” by putting in a turn lane.  This development won't increase truck traffic only, but also school bus traffic.  On Monday night a councilman asked the developer where the kids in the new development will go to school, and he said that he had no idea.

 

McKay said that the next issue concerns 4660 Dungannon Drive.  It is a request from Dominion Homes for a variance in the Alkire Village subdivision, at the corner of Alkire and Holt Roads. 

 

The WAC zoning committee heard this proposal last week and voted to table because of some unanswered questions.

 

Samantha Schuler distributed an inadequate number of survey plat maps.  She is requesting a front yard variance, though actually, it's more of a side-yard variance.  The property has frontage on three streets.  The true frontage is on Dungannon Drive, and the variance is for the side facing Tolbert Avenue.  Whenever you front a street, your setback has to be the same as if you fronted it.  This lot, therefore, must have a 25 foot setback from each of the three streets.  They are requesting a five-foot reduction from the 25-foot requirement on the one side.

 

Tolbert Avenue is 60 feet wide at its entrance because they were required to put in a right turn lane.  The road then narrows to 50 feet within the intersection.  It is a platting error; a 40 foot wide house will not fit on the lot. 

 

The houses in the area are already built.  They are in Dominion Homes' Celebration series.  All of the houses in that series are 40 feet wide.  If they built an Independence series house, it would be 35 feet wide, but it wouldn't match the rest of the development, and it would have the only detached garage in the neighborhood.

 

It would be the basic entry feature to the subdivision, and it would be a totally different style.

 

The developer would be disadvantaged if they had to put a smaller house on the lot.  However, the greater disadvantage would be to the neighbors.

 

Province asked the size of the lot.

 

It measures 60 by 120 feet.

 

How close is it to the wooden fence?

 

Five feet. 

 

The fire department doesn't like that.

 

It's five feet all over the neighborhood.  That's code.

 

Province asked whether it would be unreasonable for that site to be a park.

 

Yes, it's unreasonable.

 

The reason for the 25 foot setback is noise.

 

Schuler remarked that the house will be built when the customer buys it, so the buyer must therefore be comfortable with the situation.

 

Morris said that WAC is wasting its time.  Dominion Homes has screwed up the Westland area already, so what's another five feet?

 

J. Province moved to accept the proposal as stated.  Morris seconded.  A voice vote was taken.

 

Balthaser          no                    Hall                  yes                   Hymer              no       

Morris              yes                   McKay                        yes                   Mueller no       

J. Province       no                    Thomas            yes                   R. Weber         no       

D. Weber         no                    Woodson         no                    Yant                 yes

D. Province      no                    Hurd               yes

 

The motion was Defeated.  Hymer said that if the developer were a good neighbor, we could afford some leniency.  They can go to hell.

 

Morris said that the WAC zoning committee asked that someone in a decision-making capacity from Dominion Homes be present at this meeting.  Did Schuler ask them?

 

She apologized and said she did not understand that the zoning committee asked for that.  When is the next WAC meeting?

 

In August.  It's always the third Wednesday.

 

McKay  announced that the zoning issue regarding 5881 West Broad Street was passed by City Council.  He and several WAC members were present.  WAC asked that the issue be tabled until the Westland Area Plan could be updated, but Council instead passed the proposal by a vote of 5-1-1.  Mentel suggested WAC meet with development Staff to resolve the density discrepancy we have between the map and the text in the existing Westland Area Plan.  Sensenbrenner asked Barbash to report to him next week on the schedule for meetings to update the Westland Area Plan.

 

We should decide what our standards are, whether we prefer street trees to horse fence, etc., and we should put all of this in writing so that we can hand it to the developers before these matters come before us.

 

We have deviated from the Westland Area Plan ourselves.  We must adhere to it if we expect the developers and the Development Commission to adhere to it.  It seems that City Council has been unaware that we even had a Westland Area Plan, and it seems that the Development Commission has been following something they created for us.

 

Hymer replied that people who are on City Council now attended meetings to create the Westland Area Plan.  They ought to be aware of its existence.

 

What happened to the previous revision of the Westland Plan?

 

Province replied that we reached an impasse with Staff over two important points, so Province asked City Council to Table It Indefinitely.   Reza has copies of the revisions.

 

Hymer said he spoke to Reza.  Reza says he does not have a copy.

 

Sensenbrenner has it.  McKay said he has discussed the 1998 revisions with him.

 

It appears that the Development Commission is using the map that was created for the 1998 revised plan, and that is where the conflict lies.

 

We tried to discuss this with the Development Commission, but they refuse to talk about it.  This is a legal issue now.

 

The developers pay the council.  The tax dollars come into the coffers, and none of it seems to come back to Westland.

 

A neighbor said that the videotape of Monday's City Council meeting should be reviewed repeatedly, like a game film.  Listen to O'Shaughnessy say that she couldn't afford to live on Galloway Road.

 

Province said he has been listening for ten years, and he knows what they will say before they open their mouths.

 

The neighbor said he spoke to Bradley's office before the meeting; she wasn't there.  She abstained, but Boyce spoke for her.  He said that the developers aren't building what the people want.

 

Next month, we should be hearing from 5697 West Broad Street, the southeast corner of Broad and Galloway, on Big Run Creek.  Goldman is putting in another gas station.

 

Province said that we were supposed to received “up-front” money in January, to run the Commission. We are still waiting for it.  Meanwhile, Province has been bankrolling WAC.  Some commissions can't afford to do that, so they have not been sending the notifications to the neighbors that are mandated by the city.  Province asked Browning to look into the matter.

 

A neighbor suggested we place a lien on City Hall.

 

A neighbor said he lives at 106 Galloway Road.  When Galloway Road was widened, the builders placed three twelve-inch pipes under the road, pointing at him.  All of the stormwater from the new development approved for the other side of Galloway Road will be emptying into his front yard.

 

Province said that Sewers and Drains has promised to route that stormwater down to Sullivant Avenue, to connect with their pipe.

 

Will they route the stormwater through Hardesty Heights' party house?

 

Oh, certainly.

 

Province said that, before Sewers and Drains can install the pipeline down to Sullivant, they will have to get easements from everyone along Galloway Road.

 

Weber said that the resident has an immediate problem now.

 

There is more water coming down from the north, where Galloway Ridge was developed.  The county says they have to put in another 120 feet of pipe in order to solve the problem.  The city put those pipes in.  When they widened Galloway Road, they put them across Senator Watts' property.  Now, Mr. Stevens has piped his in, and his is the only open part out there.  120 feet, and they have run three twelve-inch pipes across Galloway Road to drain everything that they annexed Monday night.

 

Province suggested he contact the Soil and Water Conservation District, and that he retain an attorney.  The developer's engineers stated publicly that they can manage the stormwater on their own land without flooding neighboring properties.  That's what the Sierra Club is fighting right now.  This is already happening in about ten places around the city right now.  Someone is going to win one of those lawsuits, and then the city is going to start paying attention.  Until the first person wins a $30 million lawsuit, which is what the Sierra Club is asking for, the city won't pay attention.

 

The filling station at the corner of Galloway and West Broad Street will just add to the problem.

 

He lives at 106 Galloway Road, which is on the east side of Galloway Road, and which is in the township.

 

He should speak to the township trustees, too.

 

Let's bring someone from the city to the WAC meeting next month to discuss this matter.

 

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30pm.