Miami Township Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes

Tuesday August 19, 2008

Meeting In The Bryan Center Yellow Springs, Ohio

Call To Order:

Amstutz called the meeting to order at 7:05 P.M.

Those attending:

Struewing, Zopf, Staggs, Amstutz, D. Anderson, Steve Anderson, Len Kramer

Agenda:

1. Discuss the Vision Task Force

2. Discuss with S. Anderson the completing of the Comprehensive Plan

3. Discuss the joint meeting with the village

Discussion of the Vision Task Force:

S. Anderson stated that the village would like the trustees to appoint same people who are working with the village on the Vision Task Force, to work with the township. Kramer was visiting the township zoning meeting representing the village & the Vision Task Force. He passed out copies of the village resolution establishing a vision/planning task force. Struewing asked if the township zoning commission would be interested in being part of combined efforts. Kramer stated that the village would like to include the township in the envisioning process. Amstutz asked what do you want from the township? S. Anderson said that he would like to see the township doing something similar to the village visioning. Amstutz asked if the township would be required to help

financially. Struewing said not necessarily now, but maybe in the future. S. Anderson said that the vision force will go forward with the envisioning process for the village one way or the other. Struewing stated that we want this to be a fair process. The more involved the better. D. Anderson asked since there is a township trustee member on the Vision Task Force already, why name more of us? He said that Mark should go to the trustees to say we need to be more involved. S. Anderson said that this group is the driving force. Struewing said that this group is the planning group, & that a joint plan between Clifton, township & village could overlap. Staggs said that that is something we haven’t been doing-including Clifton, & we need to do that, & he supported it. Amstutz asked, “Are you asking the zoning board to endorse the task force for the village & the township?” S Anderson answered the charge is to get the consultants ideas or advice to the elected officials to then make decisions. Struewing said that the village resolution-visions is made by a non-elected group. It’s just a means to get ideas to the elected officials. He said that the coming Thursday would be the next meeting (August 21), & that this group is welcome to go to the meeting to see what happens. Amstutz said that the zoning board needs to finish the comprehensive plan. S. Anderson stated that his group can assist the township, with most likely no cost to the township to finish the comprehensive plan. S. Anderson said we would be asked to endorse the task force, not take away from the comprehensive plan. Struewing made a motion-”We endorse the visioning task force members in the village of Yellow Springs & the visioning resolution”. Staggs seconded the motion. (Struewing disclosed that he is a member of the visioning force with a possible conflict of interest.) Amstutz, Staggs & Struewing were in favor of the motion, with D. Anderson against. Kramer left the meeting at 7:42.

Additional Business:

As an aside, S. Anderson brought up a possible meeting with Xenia Township, saying that they would like to meet with this group. Zopf said that he had received a letter from Xenia Township inviting the zoning board to their 8-21 meeting. Zopf said that he would be attending. Amstutz asked if there were any comments about meeting with other similar groups. D. Anderson said that it made more sense to get together with the village before getting into meetings with other groups. Staggs said that he agreed with D. Anderson. S. Anderson suggested that on the agenda at the meeting with the village, to ask if Xenia Township could be included in the next joint meeting.

Agenda: Comprehensive Plan:

S. Anderson brought a CD for Fred with the Comprehensive plan. He said he would mail it to Fred since Fred is out of town. He said that the CD could be copied to Fred’s computer, or to anyone he chooses. Struewing commented that some words are political, so there will need to be some editing. Also, he wondered if we are going to leave in 3 distinct districts. He said specifics in zoning could be left is or taken out, or taken up in the zoning plan. Zopf said that a sliding scale has been implemented in the code & should be changed. The word ‘development’ could be subbed for ‘sprawl‘. D. Anderson said that S. Anderson is taking care of the some of the wording, but the zoning resolution would be the law. Staggs said that sliding scale could be left in, or used as a tool. D. Anderson asked if the comprehensive plan is too big, or has too much information. S. Anderson said that it is somewhat confusing the way it’s set up. He didn’t think it is detailed enough in the beginning & too detailed in the last part. He said the group needs to decide on general concepts. He thought more focus on where attention needs to be had, & some uses of land are confusing. Zopf asked how do you what the township to look like in 10-20 years? Amstutz asked as an example, do we leave the 40 acres in the plan? S. Anderson said it was alright to give a range for the acreage in the comprehensive plan, but it doesn’t need to be exact. D. Anderson suggested that the group should go home, go through it page by page, & then decide what needs to be changed. Zopf suggested using S. Anderson to help with areas of the plan where there is conflict within the committee. S. Anderson suggested the next meeting be to change the arraignment of some of the plan to put the info on a particular subject all together.

Agenda: Joint Meeting with Village

Struewing stated that the village wants to talk about the role of development. He thought it would be a good subject for discussion. An example of annexation is McGregor School. The question to ask, “Do we want more annexation?” Amstutz invited S. Anderson on behalf of the zoning board to join in the joint meeting.

Next Meeting Agenda:

1. Finalize agenda for the joint meeting

2. Have suggested changes to different areas of Comprehensive Plan assigned: to Struewing- Transition Area; Amstutz-Suburban Service Area; D. Anderson-Ag; & Staggs-Conservation.

Next Meeting will be held on Tuesday September 16, 2008 at 7:00 P.M. at Byron Center

Motion To Adjourn: Amstutz with Struewing seconding.

Meeting Ended at 8:55 P.M.