ThisWeek CW 05/23/2012
http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2012/05/22/canal-winchester-officials-discussing-wood-fired-boilers.html
The city of Canal Winchester is considering zoning amendments to prepare for new home heating solutions and vehicle fueling options.
CW Planning and Zoning Commission members discussed staff recommendations regarding unattached wood-fired boilers for home heating and commercial and residential charging stations for electric cars at the May 14 Planning and Zoning commission meeting.
“We’d like to add zoning language to allow outdoor furnaces, which use a wood boiler to transport hot water back to the house,” Planning and Zoning Administrator Andrew Dutton said.
“This is in anticipation of them, because there have been some issues in Lancaster with people installing them.”
According to Dutton, Lancaster has had several residents install the heating systems without any zoning guidelines to follow, leading to complaints from neighbors and city officials, particularly in regards to chimney smoke.
The new language was developed from average manufacturer specifications and other area community codes about the systems, Dutton said.
“The code we’re introducing requires a permit to install the system, requires that the owner only burn the manufacturer approved fuel, must have a 2-acre lot for residential district, installs it 75 feet from the property line, that the system out-building should be shed-like in appearance and be no larger than 40-feet-by-8-feet tall and the chimney stack must be 2 feet above the house’s roof line,” Dutton said.
Commissioner Jim Knowlton said he is concerned about the stability of a tall chimney and the possibility of the chimney collapsing onto the house.
“If the chimney has to be 2 feet higher than the roof, how is it supposed to be supported? Will there need to be guide wires or something or is it going to blow over with every big storm,” Knowlton said.
Development Director Lucas Haire said that the 2-foot requirement is similar to current chimney requirements for a fireplace on the house.
“The biggest complaint with these is that if you use a 4-foot smoke stack, the smoke will blow into the neighbor’s house,” Haire said. “This would be the same as a fireplace and we don’t have problems with those.”
Commissioner members Mike Vasko and Jeff Graber said that they felt the language would help by bringing potential installations of this equipment before the commission ahead of an install.
“It seems like we have a non-problem we’re trying to deal with right now,” Vasko said.
“No one is currently trying to do this, we just want to be able to see their plans if they do,” Vasko said. “If we ever see this at all we will have a chance to consider everything once this (requirement for a permit) is in place.”
Dutton also introduced zoning language for electric vehicle charging stations requiring that residential charging be done using low-voltage and screened from adjacent neighbors, while commercial charging stations will not be allowed in the front setback or 10 feet from property lines.
“This language is what I found that fit us from the bigger communities in the area,” Dutton said.
“I culled what we liked and mixed it with our code to give us something to work with.”
Haire said the language was important to consider because several large corporate users are beginning to set up these stations as a part of their green initiatives.
Graber also suggested the commission consider future opportunities for public Compressed Natural Gas filling stations, particularly in light of the Waste Management private filling station currently under construction in the city.
The commissioners voted unanimously to send the new zoning language forward to City Council for consideration.