CITY PLANNING, PROJECTS, & SERVICES COMMITTEE

CITY HALL, 100 LOCKVILLE ROAD

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 2011

 

REGULAR MEETING

7:30 P.M.

 

1.         ROLL CALL.  Mr. Fix called the meeting to order at 7:37 P.M., with Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Barletta present.  No members were absent.  Others present were:  Bill Vance, Lynda Yartin, Ed Drobina, Greg Bachman, Susan Crotty, Chet Hopper, Craig Vandervoort, and others.

 

2.         APPROVAL OF MINUTES OF February 16, 2011, Regular Meeting.  Mr. Blair moved to approve; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Fix voting “Yes.”  Motion passed, 3-0. 

 

3.         COMMUNITY COMMENTS:  No comments. 

 

4.         DEVELOPMENT:

 

            A.        Development Director’s Report.  Ms Crotty stated she had submitted a written report and would answer any questions.  Ms Crotty stated also on tonight’s agenda is a draft ordinance for a pre-annexation agreement dealing with a property on Diley Road and she would answer any questions anyone might have on that item.  Mr. Blair ascertained the Mayor’s Breakfast event will be held at the ReMax offices this month and gives local businesses the opportunity to come in and talk about anything they want.  Mr. Blair further clarified that Ms Crotty intends to do a developer’s breakfast in May.  Mr. Fix clarified that Ms Crotty had met with site selectors recently and she felt she had made some very good contacts.  Ms Crotty stated most of the site selectors were focusing on manufacturing and there is a lot of potential for that along the 33 corridor, but she wasn’t sure we would have anything available for them in Pickerington.  She stated she was hoping in future visits the site selectors would have office clients that might produce good results.  Mr. Blair inquired with regard to the property being annexed, if anyone gets annexed are we automatically required to provide water or is it up to the owner if they want to choose to use the City’s utilities.  Mr. Vance stated if the property has a well and a septic system that is functioning, he would not have a problem recommending that we do not provide services and retain that capacity.  Mr. Drobina stated water is not a requirement, but it is his understanding that if there is a public sewer within 200 feet of the foundation of the house, we may require they connect to it. 

 

            (1)        Annexation – No further report. 

 

            (2)        Development Process – Update.  No further report.

 

            (3)        Economic Development Marketing Plan – Update.  No further report.

 

            (4)        Business Retention Project – Update.  No further report. 

 

            (5)        Long Range Economic Development Plan – Update.  No further report.

 

            (6)        Implementation of the Diley Road Corridor Plan – Update.  No further report. 

 

5.         PLANNING AND ZONING DEPARTMENT: 

 

            A.        Planning and Zoning Representative Report (Mr. Blair)  Mr. Blair stated the first two action items on tonight’s agenda came out of the last Planning and Zoning Commission meeting as unanimous decisions.   

 

            B.         Planning and Zoning Department Report (Ms Crotty)  Ms Crotty stated a written report had been submitted and she would answer any questions.  Ms Crotty stated the Board of Zoning Appeals met in February and approved the variances for the Pickerington Point apartments. 

 

            C.        Fairfield County Regional Planning Commission – Update.  Ms Crotty stated the Fairfield County Regional Planning Commission did not meet in March. 

 

            D.        ACTION ITEMS:  

 

            (1)        Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance accepting the Final Plat for Huntwork Gardens.  Ms Crotty stated the request for this is because the parcel needs to be split in order to transfer a portion of it to adjacent property owners.  She stated there are no plans right now for building or development of any kind.  She stated due to the fact that the base lot has been split more than five times already, this requires a plat revision.  Mr. Blair moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yes.”  Motion passed, 3-0. 

 

                        a.         Motion to schedule a Public Hearing before Council for April 5, 2011, at 7:10 P.M.  Mr. Blair moved to schedule the public hearing for April 5, 2011, at 7:10 P.M.; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Fix, and Mr. Blair voting “Yes.”  Motion passed, 3-0. 

 

                        (2)        Review and request for motion to approve draft ordinance accepting the Final Plat for the Zane Property.  Ms Crotty stated the adjacent property owner acquired the old right-of-way for Old Diley Road and is dedicating some of that to the City for right-of-way and also a portion of property along Hill Road North for right-of-way.  She stated they need to combine some of that with an existing lot and to transfer that property it requires a plat amendment.  Ms Crotty stated Mr. Vandervoort is present to answer any questions anyone might have.  Mr. Blair moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Blair, Mr. Barletta, and Mr. Fix voting “Yes.”  Motion passed, 3-0.   

 

                                    a.         Motion to schedule a Public Hearing before Council for April 5, 2011, at 7:20 P.M.  Mr. Blair moved to schedule the Public Hearing for April 5, 2011, at 7:20 P.M.; Mr. Fix seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Barletta voting “Yes.”  Motion passed, 3-0. 


            (3)        Review and request for motion to authorize City Manager to enter into a Pre-Annexation Agreement with Deborah L. Bashore.  Ms Crotty stated the property owner at 8614 Diley Road had a failing well.  She stated there was an emergency situation and we worked with her to help her connect to water, but we did ask them to sign a pre-annexation agreement with the City whereby they agree to annex to the City for the water services.  Mr. Fix clarified we have had a conversation with the Township about this and Mr. Vance stated he has and he has not received any objections.  Mr. Vance stated he had explained that a resident of our community, regardless it they were in the City or Township, if we are in a position where we can help this resident, and since we are a city with utilities we are going to make a request that they annex if we are going to provide city services.  He stated we did make the request, and they intend to annex into the City.  Mr. Blair moved to approve and forward to Council; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion.  Roll call was taken with Mr. Barletta, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Fix voting “Yes.”  Motion passed, 3-0. 

 

            (3)        Refugee Road Study – Update.  Ms Crotty stated our intern, Justin Barker, is working on the Study and he has done a great job and has most of the text written.  She stated she hoped to have Mr. Barker come in and present the report to the Committee when it is ready. 

 

6.         BUILDING DEPARTMENT. 

 

            A.        Building Department/Chief Building Official’s Report.  Mr. Hopper stated he had provided a written report and he would answer any questions anyone might have. 

 

            B.         Discussion regarding potential Code revisions.  Mr. Hopper stated that the State of Ohio Board of Building Standards has submitted code changes for the Ohio Building Code, which is the commercial plumbing and mechanical code.  He stated he anticipated having new Building Codes adopted by the State some time in September or October.  Mr. Fix clarified that our Code states we will follow the most recent Code adopted by the State.  Mr. Hopper stated it has been his recommendation since he started with the City that we start looking at adopting the International Property Maintenance Code and he would be more than happy to discuss this and work toward adopting this.  Mr. Hopper stated he felt this was something that should not be rushed through, but we should take our time and look at the base code book.  He stated he would be happy to look through this and bring recommendations forward to the Committee.  Mr. Blair stated he just wanted to be careful about retrofitting and what we mandate and what we don’t mandate because you need to give people choices, not just mandate things. 

 

7.         SERVICE DEPARTMENT

 

A.        Service Manager’s Report.  Mr. Drobina stated he had provided a written report and he would answer any questions.  Mr. Drobina stated at the last meeting the Committee had asked if we had anything in place that would require individual shut-off for condos and as far as we can find, we do not.  Mr. Fix stated then, in the past a condominium developer could request one meter for an entire development and in doing this there was no benefit to the City or the homeowners, only for the developer because it was cheaper to install one meter.  Mr. Fix stated he felt it would make sense as a policy for us to say if they were going to build a single family unit in the community, whether it is a condo or whatever, that it has its own meter and shut-off valve.  Mr. Fix asked if we could have our law director put together legislation on this and bring it back to the next Committee meeting for review.  Mr. Drobina stated this brings up the issue of the capacity fee, would we base it on the size of the line entering the property or if there would be, say, 32 condos would we charge 32 capacity fees.  Mr. Vance stated with individual meters you can isolate individual problems or situations.  Mr. Drobina stated he would work with Mrs. Yartin to get something to the law director. 

 

Mr. Blair stated he understood there was a water leak on Columbus Street and Mr. Drobina stated that was a small leak and it was repaired.  Mr. Drobina stated however after it was fixed however you could still hear water going through the pipes so there was a leak under the road.  He stated they pulled the new line under the road and found there was a leak in the gas line, so the gas company took care of that. 

 

B.         WASTEWATER

 

            (1)        TDS – Update.  Mr. Drobina stated he had no report this evening and right now we are still meeting our TDS limit.  Mr. Fix clarified that we expect to have the reverse osmosis in next year.  Mr. Bachman stated the equipment is on order and we are close to being able to advertise for the installation contract.  Mr. Bachman stated our consultant has recommended we receive the bids on April 28th and then come back to the Committee in May with a recommendation for award.  He stated that would then go to Council for three readings and as that takes quite some time he would like to know if the Committee would consider either a Committee waiver or something that would move this along.  Mr. Fix stated the Committee could have a special meeting after the first Council meeting in May and have it on the agenda for the second Council meeting in May with a request for three readings.  Mr. Fix stated once the bids are in we would know if we needed that special meeting and he would schedule it at that time if there were no objections and all Committee members concurred. 

 

C.        WATER. 

 

                        (1)        Review and discussion regarding water storage tank maintenance contract.  Mr. Vance stated this has been somewhat of a collective investigation and ideally you want to deal with a company that has enough resources to be solely responsible for the work.  He stated our goal is to have a five-year agreement and at this time we are going to two of the more significant companies and negotiating an agreement where each of these companies will come in and do a comprehensive inspection of all of our elevated tanks at no cost to the City.  He stated once we get the reports back we would find an independent inspector to come in and assist us with the creation of a potential five-year maintenance plan.  Mr. Vance stated at that point in time we would be able to negotiate a maintenance agreement, however, right now we are in the process of establishing what our maintenance needs are. 

 

8.         ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

 

A.        Engineer’s Report.  Mr. Bachman stated he had provided a written report and would be happy to answer any questions. 

 

            B.         ACTION ITEMS:

 

            (1)        Water Master Plan and Sewer Master Plan - Update.  Mr. Bachman stated both master plans are close to being completed and both our water and sanitary sewer system seem to be in pretty good shape.        

 

             (2)       S.R. 256 Safety Improvement Project - Update.    Mr. Bachman stated MORPC will be here on Friday with some of their staff and they will look at our projects.    

 

                        (3)        Partially collapsed storm sewer on S.R. 256 - Update.  Mr. Bachman stated the contractor has been going slowly, but he has lined the first five feet of bad pipe out of that manhole and was to be lining the next five feet today.  Mr. Bachman stated once we get this portion of it fixed we will camera the rest of the line to see if there are other problems.  

 

C.        TRANSPORTATION

 

            (1)        Review and discussion regarding ODOT controlled traffic signals.  Mr. Bachman stated there is no update on this issue. 

 

            (2)        School Speed Zone Study – Update.  Mr. Bachman stated he had no update this evening. 

 

                        (3)        Discussion regarding MORPC $500,000 grant for Center/Milnor/Meadows intersection improvements.  Mr. Bachman stated he had no update this evening. 

 

Mr. Bachman stated these three items are not going to be moving very quickly so he would request that they be removed from the agenda and he would report on them when something occurs.  Mr. Fix stated he concurred with that recommendation and requested these items be removed from the agenda. 

 

Mr. Barletta stated at the signal exiting the Marcus Theater onto S.R. 256 if that bump could be smoothed out a little bit it would keep people from slowing down when making that turn.  He stated also the exit at the light from the Giant Eagle on S.R. 256 also is really bad.  Mr. Barletta stated he was just mentioning these areas because if we are going to do some future work on S.R. 256 perhaps they could be looked at. 

 

9.         CHAIRMAN.   

 

            A.        Strategic Plans Goals – Update.  Mr. Fix stated he had no update this evening. 

 

10.       OTHER BUSINESS:  

 

A.        Update on proposed solar panel project at the water treatment plant.  Mr. Vance stated he had met with the company on Monday and it appears the biggest obstacle to this project would be contracts between the power companies.  Mr. Bachman stated he agreed and he did feel it was a doable project.  Mr. Vance stated nothing like this of this size has been tried in Ohio and we would be setting a lot of precedent along the way and we would be creating a lot of opportunity for the State to work with us to pave the way for a new industry.  Mr. Vance stated we are making progress on this.   

 

11.       ADJOURNMENT.  There being nothing further, Mr. Blair moved to adjourn; Mr. Barletta seconded the motion.  Mr. Fix, Mr. Blair, and Mr. Barletta voted “Aye.”  Motion carried, 3-0.  The City Planning, Projects, and Services Committee adjourned at 8:25 P.M., March 16, 2011.

 

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED:

 

 

________________________________

Lynda D. Yartin, Municipal Clerk