PERRYSBURG — City council narrowly voted to change zoning on an industrial site to reduce noise and traffic for a neighboring residential neighborhood.
The April 18 regular meeting was dominated by debate over changing the zoning that covered the old American Steel Treating company property, at 525 W. Sixth St. and four adjacent parcels, from I-2 (General Industrial) to RM (Multiple Family Residential). The issue passed on a narrow 4-3 vote.
Deputy Planning and Zoning Administrator Mark Easterling was part of the committee discussion, but was not at the council meeting.
Councilman and Planning and Zoning Committee Chair Tim McCarthy described Easterling’s description of I-2 zoning as including the option for junk and heavy equipment yards, and that the zoning change would “protect the surrounding residents from the most intense potential uses of the property.”
Council members Mark Weber and Jan Materni echoed McCarthy’s statement.
“As someone here, who lived here during the 24 hour, everyday, the thump-thump-thump of Peters Stamping, anyone who’s been here and knows that, we owe it to the residents to make sure that something like that doesn’t happen again, and we need to do that as soon as possible,” Weber said. “I’m not saying that the current owner would do that, but I am saying I think that the residents would feel better if we took that option away from anyone to bring in any kind of manufacturing that could be bringing in that kind of noise and traffic.”
According to McCarthy, the applicant for the rezoning was the city administration.
“I personally had a discussion with (Planning and Zoning Administrator) Brody (Walters), when American Steel Treating determined to abandon the use and go out to sell it, I did have the discussions saying ‘let’s get this zoning changed, so that we don’t have continuation of industrial uses there,” McCarthy said after the council meeting.
He said that a representative from the company talked with the company representative about the zoning issue.
“It didn’t really square up with the recently passed land use plan. So we didn’t encourage him that the use would be approved, and that’s what sparked the discussion,” McCarthy said.
The committee had unanimously recommended the zoning change.
With the change, the new owner, Greenbriar Inc., which recently purchased the property from American Steel Treating, is not being forced to demolish the current building or discontinue use of the land. It is currently being used for warehousing and can continue to be used in the same fashion if Greenbriar also sells, but the footprint of the building cannot be expanded, nor can it be returned to use for manufacturing.
Also on the committee are councilmen Barry VanHoozen and Cory Kuhlman.
At the council meeting, Kuhlman said he had reservations with the approval at the committee meeting and brought up those thoughts to the rest of council.
While he repeatedly indicated that the previous industrial use was not in the city’s best interest, Kuhlman suggested waiting for the zoning change to happen along with the planned revamp of the zoning code that is intended for creating greater consistency with the updated Land Use Plan. He also believes the city should have purchased the property and is troubled by the administration’s attempts to control its use without that ownership.
“That’s what initially sparked the discussion,” McCarthy said. “Should the city negotiate to buy it? That wasn’t successful, so we proceeded with the rezoning.”
It was suggested at the meeting that the offer was considered to be too low.
Greenbriar is an owner of residential rental properties and Councilman Mark Weber pointed out that there are local residents who are concerned about potential increases to traffic, should the property become a large multi-family residential property.
However, a letter objecting to the zoning change was sent by Robert Maurer, of Greenbriar, in which he wrote about it potentially resulting in lowering property values, because of “improper taking.”
McCarthy explained that if a multi-family residential use was proposed it would have to be reviewed by the planning commission.
“So there is some review, there has to be traffic impact studies, and all that sort of thing,” McCarthy said. “Any multi-family we’re considering, we’re trying to do with a PUD, a planned unit development. What you can do with a PUD, for example, is commit them down to a level of detail to say thing that it has to be one or two bedroom units. So that you are not encouraging a large family development that would be a burden on the schools.”
Voting against the zoning change were councilmen Kuhlman, Jonathan Smith and Kevin Fuller.
“To me, it’s the means of how we are doing it,” Fuller said of his vote.
