Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

City seeks to restore ties with Violet
Thursday, April 6, 2006


By SEAN CASEY

ThisWeek Staff Writer

Pickerington officials are moving forward with efforts to mend the historical rift the city has had with Violet Township regarding development opportunities.
In a work session preceeding Tuesday night's regular city council meeting, members met with City Manager Judith Gilleland and Pickerington legal counsel to discuss stipulations to include in a standard agreement for Joint Economic Development Districts.
Pickerington has an opportunity to enter into such a partnership with Violet Township, in which the two entities would share the costs and benefits of servicing developments within JEDD areas. The township would like to forge a JEDD with the city to allow the development of a 3-acre office park planned at 10080 Wright Road.
According to Mayor David Shaver, forming a JEDD with the township would be a landmark action in restoring a cooperative spirit, which has been damaged in recent years by annexation disputes. One such case involving the Snider and Thorton family properties south of the city has even made it to the Ohio Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the issue last week.
''From their perspective ... every time they started talking about cooperating, everything moves along great and then Pickerington sees an opportunity and then just grabs it and says, 'The hell with you guys,''' Shaver said. ''If you don't start working with the township now, you are guaranteeing nothing is going to happen in the future.''
He added that creating a JEDD with Violet Township could increase the odds of Pickerington being added to the existing Cooperative Economic Development Agreement the township now has with Canal Winchester near U.S. Route 33.
Councilman Jeff Fix, who has participated in some of the JEDD discussions, said he supports pursuing cooperative agreements because it may lead to other opportunities to benefit from economic development expected to materialize through the U.S. 33 corridor and along Diley Road.
Unlike CEDA areas, in which land added later must abut the original district, participating entities can expand an initial JEDD to include non-contiguous parcels throughout their jurisdictions.
However, Councilman Michael Sabatino said he thinks the township is pushing for a JEDD to include the Wright Road office park to make good on the trustees' commitment to its developer to ensure the property could receive advantageous municipal water and sewer services. He added that he did not think this issue was a sufficient reason for giving up some municipal sovereignty by entering into a JEDD.
Councilwoman Heidi Riggs said entering into a JEDD on a small property would present the city with a low-risk avenue to rebuilding trust with the township while opening Pickerington up to future development potential.
''If it doesn't work, we walk away and there's no more JEDD,'' she said.
According to Gilleland, preliminary plans for any JEDD with the township would entail combining all tax dollars the two entities would collect in the district, subtracting the cost for servicing it and evenly splitting the leftover revenues. Shaver said he would like to include impact fees and commercial-design guidelines in JEDD agreement language.

The Mayor of the Township

This really makes me nervous as to where are we all heading here? Who is minding the asylum? They are all talking about a dinky 3 acres of land as if it were a 250 acre industrial park out near Allen Road. Listen to these quotes and who has their arm the Mayor?’s butt operating his mouth?

''From their perspective ... every time they started talking about cooperating, everything moves along great and then Pickerington sees an opportunity and then just grabs it and says, 'The hell with you guys,''' Shaver said. ''If you don't start working with the township now, you are guaranteeing nothing is going to happen in the future.''


We have the Mayor of Pickerington taking the side of the Township trustees publicly and with a hint of distaste for his own city. Isn?’t part of the Mayor?’s job and the Council's job to look out for the interests of the City and its taxpayers? They are talking about 3 acres folks and it is as if everything in the world depends upon those damn three acres. If the City wanted to grab this land wouldn?’t they have grabbed it by now since it borders the city?

What a line of crap coming out of the three township leaning members of our city government. Even if the City agrees to this stupid JEDD it will only ?“increase the odds?” or it ?“MAY lead to other opportunities.?”

It seems Fix, Shaver, and Riggs are in this together and are fully under the control of the township trustees and every one of these people are in the NW Republican club.

SHORTSIGHTED

Would it not be better to take a part of the whole than spend the taxpayers' money to fight a development which will be good for both entities, not to mention more dollars for the school/children. The infighting between the city and township has brought the city to where it is now, deeper in debt. Wake up/open your eyes.

Money with all of the debt

Dear Shortsighted,

How does entering into a one way agreement with township get the city out of debt? You sound like former councilman Parker in ''getting all of those tax dollars into the city by annexing housing developments.'' You are using the very same agreements that have been used in the past and they didn't work then and they won't work now.

Cooperation between the City and the Township sounds good and makes some great sound clips for the press but in the end the dollars and cents must add up. When we are talking about possibilities and a bunch of maybes then I think the City Council is risking the future of the community by pouring money down a rat hole and in the end it benefits no one. It seems to me that Shaver has promoted the policy of ''pay as you grow'' and now wants he wants to abandon that policy just for the sake of getting along with the Township. It will be interesting to see what the remaining members of the council have to say and if they will support the Mayor in this effort. I think they are quietly exploring ways to make this work. If the numbers don't add up like you claim then I doubt they are dumb enough to go a long with Shaver and Fix.