Dozens of Woodville Road-area residents turned out for a zoning hearing on Tuesday night. The Lake Township Trustees voted 2-1 to reject the request. (Sentinel-Tribune | Debbie Rogers)
By Debbie Rogers
MILLBURY — A microscope has been turned on the hodgepodge of Lake Township zoning on Woodville Road.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the trustees voted 2-1 to reject a request from Hillabrand Holdings to rezone 33.3 acres on Walbridge Road from Residential 2 to Business 3.
Mike Hossler, Lake Township zoning inspector, said the area needs planning and the zoning code for the township must be updated.
“If you look at Woodville Road, it is a mess,” Hossler said. “We have a mess and we know that.”
Hossler gave some examples: There are homes that are in businesses. An ice cream shop is in residential zoning. There’s a barn in an area zoned Business 1.
“We have a mess and we’re correcting it. But it’s not going happen overnight,” he said.
Attorney Matt Fischer, who is representing Greg Hillabrand, said that Woodville Road is a mix of “spot zoning.”
“We’re only moving less than 1,200 feet down the road. It’s a 33-acre parcel. It’s a major state route. It’s ripe for development,” Fischer said.
The Lake Township Zoning Commission and the Wood County Planning Commission had both recommended that the zoning change be rejected.
Fischer said that owner Greg Hillabrand and his company have been unfairly vilified in this process.
“Hillabrand Holdings has been a good company, they are a good company,” Fischer said. “We are very aware of our neighbors and we will do this the right way,”
Hillabrand wants to invest substantially in the property and will provide income to the school district, Fisher said.
Hillabrand said that he planned on putting in “nice” landscaping as barriers and a retention pond, which is required by the Ohio EPA.
“It’s not a pit,” Hillabrand said, referring to a borrow pit. “I do not have plans to do that on this property.”
There would be no increased truck traffic, he said, adding that they do not crush concrete either.
But neighbors said a business like this would transform the area from a peaceful residential area to a loud, manufacturing corridor.
Paul Lambrecht owns two properties on Woodville Road.
“This has been shot down as a ‘no’ by the county and our zoning. It is not a good fit,” Lambrecht said.
He said there are 73 families own homes abutting this property.
“I don’t know if you’ve ever seen those machines run, but we’ll be rumbled right out of our homes,” Lambrecht said.
James Tate has lived in community for 50 years and is now in the Greystone subdivision.
“I love the quietness. I love the safety. I love the way it is now,” he said.
Scott Pierce, who lives in the Greystone subdivision, said a business would transform the neighborhood.
“I’m opposed to this,” he said. “Everything’s quiet. There’s families.”
A former Lake Local Schools Board of Education member, Margene Akenberger, said businesses need to be embraced in the township.
“I have watched this community change drastically,” she said. “If we don’t have a good tax base … it’s all going to fall on us.”
Trustee Chairman Ken Gilsdorf said that Ohio 795 and Woodville Road are business corridors.
Gilsdorf voted in favor of the rezoning.
“Woodville Road is a mixture of business and residential,” he said after the meeting, citing a Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments study.
There are 53 businesses and 22 residences in that corridor, Gilsdorf said.
“It’s a mixture of stuff … and they (Hillabrand) are just asking to move,” he said.
Trustees Lorie Davis and Richard Welling voted against the rezoning.
Davis said she wouldn’t want that business in the neighborhood, if she lived there.
Welling said that the trustees usually follow the recommendations of the local zoning board and the county planning commission, which both rejected Hillabrand’s rezoning request.
Hillabrand has 30 days to appeal the decision.
