Far Northwest Coalition

MARCH 2002 FNWC MINUTES

MARCH 2002 FNWC MINUTES

FAR NORTHWEST COALITION
P. O. BOX 340285 COLUMBUS, OH 43234-0285

March 27, 2002

The Far Northwest Coalition (FNWC) met for its regularly scheduled meeting at the Northwest Library. Members present of the FNWC Board were John Best, John Murley, Mark Seeger,
Mark Gresham & Rich Herner.

John Best opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. He announced that the Snouffer Road closing will hopefully only be for four weeks, rather than the initial six weeks that had been publicized. He said someone had been digging in the area and hit a water line, which has caused the problem.

Best noted that the 7:30 p.m. graphics variance agenda item for 2445 Billingsley Road (Byers) had been postponed again at the request of the applicant. Stephanie Donaldson of the Summerwood Civic Association made a presentation to the group about the Columbus Area Pedestrian Safety Committee (CAPSC), of which she is a member. She discussed the “Keep Kids Alive Drive 25” national campaign. She shared child pedestrian accident statistics for the City of Columbus for the1999-2000 year, published by the City Health Department. She said traffic calming has not slowed drivers down and that studies have shown that two thirds of drivers do not slowdown in school zones during restricted hours. She said that pedestrian accidents are the third highest cause of children deaths. She said that the se types of accidents might be reduced by stricter enforcement, increasing speeding fines in 25 MPH areas & advertising in some areas.

Donaldson requested that the FNWC donate $1,500 to her group to pay a licensing fee to the “Keep Kids Alive Drive 25” campaign, which would allow the City to make up the campaign signs for $5.50 rather than the regular price of $9.00 each. She said the FNWC name would be prominently displayed on all signs and other advertising. This would pay the license fee and allow signs to be made up for the entire city, not just the far northwest area.

Dimitri Smirniotopoulos, owner of the two properties located at 2690 and 2704 W. Dublin-Granville Road made a presentation concerning his request to rezone his properties to C-2 in the City of Columbus. He recently had both adjacent properties annexed into the City from Perry Township.
2690 is his architectural office & was zoned CC(Community Commercial) in Perry Township. He is requesting C-2 in the city of Columbus because it would allow him to continue his office use but not a retail type of use. There was some question about his plans to add an additional structure toward the front of the lot for additional office use. The existing residential house located at 2704 is zoned R-1 in Perry (Restricted Suburban Residential) but he would like to change the zoning to C-2, to be compatible with his existing office, adjacent to this property. He plans to make additions to the property to allow for office use. He said he wants to keep the residential flavor of the area but turn it into a professional campus.

There was extensive discussion with local area residents concerning Smirniotopoulos’s plans. It was questioned if he could do the same types of things with a variance rather than a complete change in zoning. There was also discussion about a PUD zoning for both properties, because of concern about what uses could be permitted if Smirniotopoulos was no longer there. He was to get back to the City concerning these other issues as well as possible discussions to assuage some of the concerns of the area residents.

It was moved and seconded, that the FNWC would defer a decision on the rezoning request for 2690 W. Dublin-Granville Road to aC-2 use until further information could be obtained about the request and other possible uses. Motion passed.

It was moved and seconded that the FNWC oppose the zoning request to change to C-2 for the property located at 2704 W. Dublin-Granville Road. Motion passed.

The FNWC then discussed several additional points concerning the request for funds from the CAPSC to sponsor the licensing fee for signs of the “Keep Kids Alive Drive 25” campaign. After this discussion, it was moved and seconded that the FNWC provide $200 to the CAPSC to be used for license fees towards the campaign. The motion was defeated, with one abstention.

There being no further business to come before the FNWC, the meeting was adjourned.

Respectfully submitted,



Rich Herner
Secretary