MILLBURY — Lake Township officials are redoing a rezoning request after affected residents said they were not notified properly.

Police Chief Mark Hummer, who is also the township administrator, said a rezoning request for American Cold Forge on Woodville Road will be sent back to the zoning commission. A May 16 hearing by the trustees has been canceled, Hummer said.

“We will be sending that zoning change back,” he said.

The zoning request is for a changed from business 1 to manufacturing 1.

Several neighbors attended Tuesday’s trustees meeting.

Ron Timbrook, who lives on Woodville Road, said the land should not be rezoned. The zoning change was approved 5-0 by the township zoning commission.

“Nobody wants a stamping plant next to their house,” Timbrook said. “It’s going to take away the value of my property.”

Welling said that the plant was already there and operating; the zoning change is an adjacent property.

An expansion, though, would increase the noise, Timbrook said. He added that there aren’t any official plans for the expansion.

“Don’t rezone this without any plans, it’s a blank check,” he said.

Paul Lambrecht, Woodville Road, said that according to the Ohio Revised Code, residents abutting the property asking for the zoning change should be notified. Many of them were not, he said.

“Therefore, these petitions should be revisited before they are approved … they did not follow the rule of order,” Lambrecht said.

Trustee Chairman Ken Gilsdorf said the trustees had a lot of homework to do and would get back to the concerned citizens. Trustee Richard Welling suggested consulting legal counsel.

In a phone call on Wednesday, Hummer said they were canceling the May 16 hearing and redoing the process.

“It was not our best work,” he said.

Growing pains in Lake Twp.

MILLBURY — Lake Township is experiencing growing pains, and residents say they are hurting.

As First Solar expands two and three times in the township, the area is poised for development. Several residents, though, attended Tuesday’s trustees meeting and said “not in my backyard.”

It’s a conundrum for leaders.

“I think we need to have a community-wide discussion, as to what direction the township wants to go in,” said Trustee Richard Welling. “Let the community decide what direction they want the township to go.”

Trustee Chairman Ken Gilsdorf said the township also relies on other agencies’ plans, such as the Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments design for the Woodville Road corridor.

“What kind of businesses do we want out there? It’s not built for residential,” he said.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Diana Maze, Ayers Road, asked about the process for new business in the township and communication.

“How do I go about knowing what’s going on in my township?” Mays said. “I don’t want some huge plant in my backyard.”

Police Chief Mark Hummer, who is also the township administrator, said that if a property has to be rezoned or the owner wants to ask for tax abatement, it would become public knowledge.

For the most part, though, it can be secretive.

“Developers work behind the scenes because they don’t want to get into a bidding war on a piece of property,” Hummer said.

“We’re kind of the final end of the road,” Welling said of being informed.

Maze said she didn’t move to the township because of economic development.

“I moved out here for a reason. It’s because I don’t want to be in the city,” she said. “I don’t want it in my backyard.”

Hummer said that the Ohio 795 and U.S. 20 corridors are primed for growth.

“We do have people looking at property for commercial and residential uses,” he said. “We’re going to have some growth here in the future and we’re going to have to try to manage it.”

He said that the hottest property for growth in the corridor is from Perrysburg east to Interstate 280.

There will be opportunities and challenges, Hummer said.

“Nobody likes change and we all understand that,” he said. “Everything out here at one point was agriculture and it got changed over time.

“We’re becoming an urbanized township.”

Gilsdorf said that the trustees expect development to be part of the conversation in the future.

“Stuff like this is going to crop up more and more,” he said. “It’s something you have to really scrutinize, especially when it’s in someone’s backyard.”