Developers want a say in code changes

ThisWeek CW 11/17/2011

http://www.thisweeknews.com/content/stories/canalwinchester/news/2011/11/15/developers-want-a-say-in-code-changes.html

The Canal Winchester Planning and Zoning Commission agreed Monday to table action on several proposed changes to the city’s commercial development standards so local officials and developers can further refine them.

The unanimous vote came after the commission heard testimony from developers and city staff members.

“The impetus behind this is to bring buildings forward and to make things more pedestrian-friendly while also making things more concise and clear,” city development director Lucas Haire said. “We don’t want a building code that people will say, ‘I didn’t even know that (requirement) was in there.’ We’re following on work other communities have done to bring more foot traffic to businesses and not be as focused on car traffic.”

Eric Leibowitz, development specialist with Casto, the owner of Waterloo Crossing, asked that representatives of his company and other developers be invited into the conversation before Canal Winchester adopts any changes.

“We’ve found when we’ve been involved ahead of submitting changes like this, we can balance the needs of developers up front,” Leibowitz said. “We think this is really a positive move toward making consistent economic development a reality here, as long as the right things are put in place.”

Haire agreed that further discussion is necessary to get things right before sending any of the proposals on to city council for approval.

“Many developers are coming in with a national tenant who has ready-made plans. I want to keep the standards high, but I want to be able to work with developers, too, so that we get that development,” Haire said. “There’s nothing brewing right now that is pushing this today that we know about, so let’s get this right.”

City planning and zoning administrator Andrew Dutton said most of the changes the city hopes to implement are related to reordering requirements for buildings and putting the regulations in the proper sections of the zoning code.

“We made a lot of changes to the order of the requirements and changed or removed some of them that didn’t make a lot of sense,” Dutton said. “There was no applicability section, so we added that.”

Currently, there is not a clear statement in the zoning code about what requirements apply to commercial buildings, according to Dutton.

Haire said one of his concerns would be to remove the architectural requirements for industrial buildings because they are too restrictive to encourage new industrial development without requesting variances.

“I want to exempt the industrial buildings because the architectural requirements are quite high and while they give us a quality building and design, for some development, you’ll never get an industrial building built here if you don’t exempt them,” he said.

Currently, Haire is working to bring in more industrial development at the Canal Pointe Industrial Park and has said establishing a concise zoning code will help with marketing efforts.

Several planning commission members said they were concerned about maintaining a high standard for buildings and improving the city’s attractiveness.

“Our goal has been to keep the standards relatively high,” commission member Jeff Graber said. “You think of areas like Upper Arlington and Dublin and you have people here who say we’ll never be one of those communities.

“Well, if we keep our standards high and work toward that, then why can’t we be?” he asked. “Our goal shouldn’t be the minimum, Columbus-type standards.”

In other news, the commission approved a site development plan for the remodeled McDonald’s at 6161 Gender Road and a residential deck within the floodplain for Harold Belt of 6810 Bigerton Bend.

The next planning and zoning commission meeting will start at 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 12, at Town Hall, 10 N. High St.