Perrysburg Twp. eyes new zoning

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LIME CITY – Perrysburg Township residents may decide again next year whether they want zoning
laws enacted in certain areas.Township Administrator Walt Celley asked trustees for permission Wednesday to
begin looking at zoning proposals that could be placed on the November 2014 ballot. "If you want to do
that, we need some direction," he said. "It’s a lot of work."Redefining unzoned areas of the
township has been voted down in the past. But officials have experienced some additional problems with
landowners, and adding zoning may lessen future nuisances to residents.Trustees Gary Britten, Bob Mack and
Craig LaHote agreed that it might be time to ask voters again whether they want additional regulations
placed on land use."As the years have gone by, more cases have surfaced that make a strong argument for
zoning," Mack said. "And since the last time we tried, we have plenty of situations we can say to
people, ‘Hey, this would be a good reason to have zoning.’"About half of the township presently falls
under zoning regulations, according to Kelly Hemminger, zoning administrator.Mack said that if a proposal
does move forward and is approved by voters, it’s important that property owners currently in unzoned areas
aren’t met with sudden changes to their land use."If there’s an industrial use on Glenwood Road, we
should zone that industrial, even though it might not be a perfect fit. I don’t feel that passing zoning
should encumber anybody that’s already innocently using their property in what is currently a law-abiding
way. I don’t want to see them penalized, or worse yet, have their properties be
nonconforming."Nonconforming uses – an industrial warehouse in a residential area, for example – can
often make selling or refinancing property difficult, Mack added. "The banks are becoming more
sensitive to nonconforming uses."LaHote likewise suggested recent cases may have turned the tide in
favor of zoning in the eyes of some township residents."It sounds like we may have a little bit more
support from at least a few people in that area."In other business, trustees gave their approval for
the city of Perrysburg to use the township’s old fire station while rebuilding a water tower on Fort Meigs
Road.

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