PATA History Pages

Latest Newsworthy Media Stories

CITIZENS MOBILIZED TO FIGHT

Do citizens concerns make an impact of zoning decisions?

You be the judge in the “game” of zoning issues and procedures.

Read the attached link to a Tuesday, December 4, 2001 Columbus Dispatch article titled

“TABLED REZONING MOTION STALLS EAST SIDE RESIDENTS' FIGHT”

CITIZENS MOBILIZED TO FIGHT A PROPOSED ZONING CHANGE


A Columbus developer fails to submit zoning amendment changes before a scheduled zoning meeting 150 impacted citizens show up at the zoning hearing ready for a fight. The developer doesn’t appear at the hearing.

Do citizens' show of concern impact the outcome?

Financial Campaign Contributions - A Foot in the Door

Do financial campaign contributions have a relationship to elected officials decisions?

See part one of a two part Columbus Dispatch story –

CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS CAME FROM DEVELOPERS, BUILDERS OR THEIR ATTORNEYS


Though the story deals with City of Columbus is the picture much different here in our community?

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Columbus Dispatch - Monday, December 10, 2001

The other part of the series article - Sunday, December 9, 2001 – Columbus Dispatch

A FOOT IN THE DOOR

Sections of the story deny any wrong doing – while others are quoted –

"You've just described the ingredients of an invisible insider game that can be taking place at city hall," said Larry Makinson, senior fellow at the center for responsive politics, a nonpartisan group in Washington that supports campaign-finance reform.
"It's a closed game. The public is not only on the outside but in the dark. People are going to take advantage."

Are the campaign finance contributions locally any more above board when many candidates failed to disclose contributors and expenses prior to the election date?

COUNCIL TURNS DOWN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

COUNCIL TURNS DOWN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

Columbus Dispatch Tuesday, December 11, 2001

Local Pickerington residents - Please don’t get too excited by this headline the article is regarding Columbus’s City Council.

David Brehm, former chairman of the Columbus Development Commission, called the vote significant in setting the tone for traditional-neighborhood developments in areas around the city that call for them.
"I applaud the courage of council for upholding the standards of traditional-neighborhood development,'' he said.
Brehm, principal architect for the Designgroup, worked on a task force that helped develop a zoning code for such developments. He said an affirmative vote would have undermined the concept.


"We were fairly optimistic with this,'' Qualstan (development) attorney Dan Schoedinger said. "It's disappointing.''

Additionally - also last night, the council tabled indefinitely a $1.3 million contract with Malcolm Pirnie for design and engineering work on a proposed 3.4-mile water line between the Hoover reservoir and the Hap Cremean water-treatment plant on Morse Road.
The $23 million project, in the works since 1984, would divert water from the Big Walnut Creek through a water line to protect the water supply of 600,000 Central Ohio residents if the creek were to become polluted.
But some residents near the creek fear building the new line will damage the creek and the surrounding environment. A recent letter from the chairwomen of the Central Ohio Sierra Club had exposed some of the misconceptions of the 66” water pipe issue.

Links

TABLED REZONING MOTION STALLS EAST SIDE RESIDENTS' FIGHT
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS - part 1 of 2 part Dispatch story
A FOOT IN THE DOOR - part 2 of Dispatch story
COUNCIL TURNS DOWN HOUSING DEVELOPMENT