Follow the land-use plan and avoid legal problems

Follow the land-use plan
and avoid legal problems

EDITOR:

Wal-Mart’s attempts to receive a variance from the Mahoning County Land Use Plan are proceeding in an orderly manner. So far, they have been testing the waters, which has included discussions with the Mahoning County Planning Commission and an “informational meeting” with Canfield Township officials. By now, government officials are aware of a preponderance of evidence that negatively impacts the decision to grant a variance.

A land-use plan is a document that is drawn up by professional planners who are, in effect, futurists. Their job is to envision the highest and best use of the land, take into account residential, commercial, business/office, light industrial, heavy industrial, institutional, and all other entities for which a land-use plan would be relevant. Traffic and various other impact studies are factors that are also taken into consideration in the careful preparation of the plan. The land-use plan, although not always spelled out, results as much from negative factors as it does from positive considerations. The possible creation of a negative factor in terms of traffic is implicit in the plan hence the decision to zone it residential.

Traffic is a continuing concern. Traveling in an easterly direction from the Village Green on Route 224 to Raccoon Road one encounters six traffic lights and seven access roads providing ingress and egress to Route 11. Transportation officials have worked together to provide outstanding solutions to the convergence of two main traffic arteries in the county. The turning lane accessing Raccoon Road from 224 would have to be lengthened and the distance between 11’s turn off onto 224 and Raccoon Road is very short.

A “big box” store becomes an “attractive nuisance” in the parlance of zoning codes when it encroaches upon a residential neighborhood. Individuals may be drawn to the neighborhood whose purpose is neither to shop at the store nor “visit” with the local neighbors. This means an automatic increase in police protection. The township currently hires police officers from the Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department.

In the past, members of planning commission and township trustees have been sued for failure to grant a variance. Those bringing a case against government officials have usually lost their case because of the weight of a Land Use Plan as a legal document in the courts. In the past, further attempts to be heard in appellate court have resulted in a case being reminded to common pleas court where the variance had been denied. Further attempts to be heard by the Ohio Supreme Court were rejected. (One case is of record in Mahoning County; there may be others.)

If government representatives decide not to follow a legal document like a land-use or comprehensive plan, their decision will be regarded as “spot zoning.” The effect will be to invalidate those plans which were designed to provide legal suasion in court.

If this is allowed to occur, the sole remaining option is that of the referendum. A referendum should rarely be used but is a precious privilege of a democracy.

ELIZABETH DUNHAM ITTS

Boardman

X The writer is a former member of the Canfield Planning Commission.

Wrap your windows and save

EDITOR:

Here is a good tip on how to cut down on your house heating bill. I have removable inside screens on my windows but no storm windows. I scotch tape very clear plastic wrap on the window screens and it takes about five minutes per window. The wrap is extra wide and I purchase it for a few dollars at a discount store.

The length of each roll is 134 feet, enough to cover all the windows in my house. The plastic wrap is so clear that it is hard to tell it is covering the screens, and it never gets cloudy.

If you don’t have screens on your windows, you may be able to find someone with a table saw to cut one half inch wide by half inch thick long boards out of soft pine. Then make a frame to fit each window using a utility knife to cut the pine at 45 degrees and reinforcing the corners with gussets. Then cover the frame with plastic wrap.

DON MOLAR

Girard

The predictable prosper

EDITOR:

Regarding the Dec. 19 editorial, “Don’t replace bad toll idea with a bad leasing idea ...”

It refers to nsufficient facts. that’s an understatement. What is also missing is any evidence that authors (not necessarily Pa. Gov. Rendell) of the idea looked at the geography of the northern tier of Pennsylvania, and I don’t mean the topography. There’s much more to geography than places and cities.

If long distance drivers are faced with great tolls on I-80, what will they do? Use I-86, New York’s Southern tier expressway, which connects with I-90 near Erie. The return on tolls collected will not come anywhere near the least optimistic projections.

Also, if the example for the idea of leasing the turnpike is the Indiana toll road, the situation is nowhere near to being similar. The Indiana road was suffering from neglect. The tolls never were kept anywhere near to what inflation demanded, and they had no money for upkeep.

Your editorial seemed to have missed the point that one of the things needed to improve the climate for attracting businesses and industries is top quality road infrastructure. Of course, they need to do other things. Radically revamp the tax structure is one. What Pennsylvania has is not so much a high tax structure as it is an unfair and unpredictable tax structure. Businessmen like predictability, even more than they like low taxes.

Last September, my son and I chose to drive from Corning toward Warren along New York Route 417, which parallels I-86. Almost every town we passed through had active small to moderate size industries going, ones of the type we are not able to attract to this area, and Pennsylvania would also like to attract. Yet, New York has higher taxes than either Pennsylvania or Ohio. What gives? Predictability?

JEROME K. STEPHENS

Warren