Federal funds aid land study

Officials expect a consultant will visit every township.
By D.A. WILKINSON
VINDICATOR SALEM BUREAU
LISBON -- Columbiana County commissioners will use $10,000 in federal dollars to help fund the county's land-use study.
Commissioners voted Wednesday to use the money from the county's Community Development Block Grant program to hire Betty Sekula.
Sekula, who had been a governmental affairs consultant for the Home Builders/Remodelers Association of the Mahoning Valley, has completed a land-use plan for Mahoning County. Commissioners said they haven't negotiated a contract with Sekula.
Commissioners want her to do the same thing here.
Sean Logan, chairman of the commissioners, said Sekula's methods in the study in Mahoning County was "a very professional model."
Study has started
The Columbiana County land-use study has begun with volunteers funded by donations who are working through the county's Cooperative Extension Service. Commissioners have eliminated funding of the service this year because of the loss of a 0.5-percent sales tax. Because the extension service's budget was slashed, however, the commissioners won't have to repay the federal funds.
Logan said the study is in its beginning stages.
The nonbinding land-use survey would give officials an idea of how to deal with residential and business growth. Some areas of the diverse county have zoning while others do not.
Logan said he expects Sekula will go township by township to visit and prepare a separate plan for each township.
Commissioner Jim Hoppel said that means local residents can get what they want in the plan.
Farming is a large industry in the county, but housing developments have begun to spring up. Logan said a key to the study would be a farmland preservation plan.
Farmers can put an agricultural easement on their property that can make it remain agricultural property, he added.
wilkinson@vindy.com