BROOKFIELD Candidates favor zoning but await decision by the voters

For the third time since 1982, voters will be asked to weigh in on zoning.
BROOKFIELD -- When they go to the polls in November, Brookfield voters will again balance landowners' rights to do what they want with their property with the rights of their neighbors not to be disturbed.
Each candidate for township trustee says he hopes the scale comes down on the side of zoning.
This is the third time since 1982 that Brookfield voters have been asked to implement zoning. There are four townships in Trumbull County without zoning; Brookfield is the most populous of those.
"Right now it is really up to the people," said Gary Lees, who is seeking re-election.
Over the past four years, trustees spent more than $20,000 developing a comprehensive land-use plan and proposed zoning regulations. All the candidates say zoning is necessary to regulate growth.
"We are kind of stagnating here," said candidate John N. Miller, who was a trustee from 1990 to 1998. "You won't find too many people or too many businesses willing to move into an unzoned township."
Miller charges that current trustees are doing little to get the voters behind zoning. Incumbent Trustee John P. Schmidt says he has been forthright in his support for the issue.
"We have been told by a number of people that they wouldn't do any development in Brookfield because there is no protection," Schmidt said. "They could put up a new development on 100 acres and someone across the street begins a scrap yard."
Opponents of zoning also worry about property values, but for a different reason.
Bob Maskrey worries that he would not be able to expand his business, the Tool Shed, located near his home in an area on state Route 7 that would be zoned residential.
If the property can't be used for business in the future, its value is diminished, Maskrey said.
Several of his neighbors moved to Brookfield because there is no zoning, he said. Creating the regulations will cause dissension among neighbors, who will tell on each other rather than try to help out with problems, and a zoning inspector will cost the township money that could be better used elsewhere, he said.
"In my opinion, it is immoral and unconstitutional," he said.
All the candidates support spending money to hire a zoning inspector and enforce zoning regulations if voters approve it.