Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

A Tough One

This big box issue is a tough one, no doubt about it. Does anyone really doubt that we're talking Walmart here? That's a hard one in itself. Walmart apparently underpays its employees, buys its goods cheap overseas, has contributed significantly to the exportation of American jobs, drives other more responsible retailers out of business and abandons its stores. Yet we all shop there.

We would all like to preserve the rural character of our community. That's why we moved here and, no doubt, that's why our neighbors out Regugee moved there. Placing a Walmart out there, however, will take us they other way. Once the Walmart is built, the outlots will fill up with restaurants, fast oil change places, bank branches and the like. One after another, the remaining big boxes on Brice and Hamilton will start relocating here, to follow their customers.

We don't need all of that stuff here. It's already just a five minute drive away. We don't want massive retail development without the requisite infrastructure -- the roads, the water and sewer systems and suchlike. Above all, we don't want Refugee or Diley to turn into another Hamilton or Brice, with vacant big boxes, payday lenders, pawn shops, strip bars and whatever else property owners can scrounge up to fill their vacant properties.

On the other hand, there's no doubt that, in time, all available land in this community will be developed, commercially or residentially. Commercial development does not, at least, add kids to our schools. And there is no doubt that we need to build a commercial tax base in this community. Otherwise, it will take property tax rates higher than anyone will tolerate to maintain our schools. And as our schools go, so will go this community and, with it, the resale value of our homes.

But the infrastructure costs associated with a Walmart on Refugee Road could easily outstrip the additional tax revenue that the store will generate. How how are we to pay, or avoid, those costs? The current Refugee Road will not support development like that, nor will any of the other two-lane roads in the area. We can't leave such stuff to the county. That may be a different pocket, but its the same pants. In any case, we have the safety of our school kids to consider.

The longterm solution to all of this, I think, is that we need to begin systematically planning for our community's future. No more of this closed door stuff. No more leaving it up to builders and developers.

This is our future. We all need to be involved. We need to decide how much commercial, what kind we want, and where we would like it to be located. We need to decide, together, on arterials, stoplights, architectural and design standards, zoning, lot size and setback requirements, and so forth. Then we need to do everything we can to get the ball rolling. We need to budget infrastructure costs and proceed with infrastructure development.

To do that effectively, however, we need to unite this entire community under a single government. There's just no other way. Otherwise, we'll wind up with a hodgepodge that no one likes, not even the retailers or developers.

I guess we'll need to muddle through this one. But this should teach us that there is no future in muddling -- unless we're prepared to go the way of Brice and Hamilton. Let's get organized, once and for all.

By Yosemite Pam

You're wrong about one thing:

Contrary to Anonymous' statement, there was considerable community support for the Diley Rd project. Even in the Tussing Area and the northern township people supported it as necessary to the community at large. They're support was drowned out by the noisy mob of Sabatinos. The project was and is supported.

The new proposal I think will have the same kind of large scale support. The loud-mouthed luddites and imported union rabble notwithstanding.

By Any Mouse

Sounds Great, But....

Yosemite Pam,

Your idea that we all need to be involved and make decisions as a community sounds great, but nobody here knows what they're doing. I don't care what level of government you're talking about, be it school board, city, township or county, they're all essentially made up of gullible country folk. There are no progressive or urban-experienced people in the lot. And none will be elected, either.

It seems as though everybody wants the ''good ole days'' when the area was mostly farms. Well, those days are gone forever. Yet we have a bunch of incompetent boobs running the show(s). I'm not trying to put anybody down here by saying that. It's just the truth. How could they be competent at this? They haven't experienced it before.

Hundreds of people will show up to protest Wal-Mart coming to the area, but only a handful will show up to roll up their sleeves to really make this a great community. Even still, it takes more than rolling up your sleeves. It takes knowledge, skill, experience and leadership. Those things are lacking county-wide.

What I'm saying here is, basically, we're doomed.

By Seen It Before

We Need a Merger Commission

I've spent some time recently with a number of our local leaders, and I don't share your pessimism. They've given a lot of thought to the direction this community should take, and they agree that the one element that is missing is systematic planning, with guidance from urban planning professionals.

They're not opposed to urban growth. They know that it is inevitable. But it needs to be managed. We need a sensible balance of residential and commercial development, with the rate of growth controlled so that it does not outstrip our schools, roads, public utilities and other infrastructure. If we are going to preserve at least some of the rural flavor of this community, we also need to control the density and general appearance of this community through zoning and setback requirements, and common design standards, among other things.

They realize that we need to set aside land now for parks, greenspace and hiking/biking trails, while we still have it. They see the need to look at both the costs and benefits of each major project. And I think that, at least in the city, they have started to make some real progress.

This commitment, however, needs to spread more deeply into this community. We need more civic involvement and, above all, more civic spirit, more commitment to our common good, and less of the ''not in my back yard'' mentality. Above all, if we are going to do some systematic planning, we need to unite under one government.

We need to get the unification process started now, at least by appointing a broad-based study commission to identify all the issues, and consider all the pros and cons, of merging the city and the township, and to determine the type of government, and the type of community, that we want.

I think that such a commission, if broadly representative, and if sufficiently determined to reach down into our grass roots for answers, could make a real dent in our public apathy as well. At least it's worth a try.



By Yosemite Pam