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.