Guest columns
Should Pickerington join JEDD?
No: Proposal based on speculation, lacks financial analysis
Thursday, October 12, 2006

Cooperation between the city and Violet Township. Less taxes and more commercial development. Sounds good, right? How could this economic development agreement be anything other than positive?
The proverbial devil is in the details.
The sponsor of this legislation will have you believe ''peace and prosperity'' will flow from this agreement. I prefer to live in a world where facts, figures and scientific studies prove success and provide direction, not one of distorted facts and speculation.
This agreement does not enter us into a commercial development project with the township. It forces the city to give up our right to grow and limits our ability to protect our citizens living along our borders. It gives away one-half of our income tax, forces us to prove our own expenses and further stresses our police force and limited city staff.
We're sacrificing this for an opportunity to talk to the township about possible future speculative agreements? The devil is in the details.
Our former development director documented, in painful detail, the amount of work and analysis that must be performed before entering into any Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) or Cooperative Economic Development Agreement. Instead, we're gambling the future of our city on the prospect of a JEDD someday occurring while sacrificing much as we wait.
The backers of this proposal have not provided a financial analysis showing the financial benefits or detriments to us as citizens. They have not, because you cannot perform a financial study on speculation. It's similar to performing a cost-benefit analysis on playing the Ohio lottery. The devil, they say, is in the details.
Route 33 is being hailed as the Holy Grail for commercial development. Are you aware: 1) Nearly all the open land along 33 is zoned residential. 2) Landowners cannot be forced to rezone commercially. 3) Landowners cannot be forced to put their land into a JEDD, even if they choose to rezone commercially. 4) ODOT has no plans for an interchange in this proposed area of development. 5) Canal Winchester gives 22 percent of its income tax in the CEDA area, and only 10 percent in another annexation agreement to Violet Township, while we're being required to provide 50 percent regardless of circumstances. 6) Canal Winchester, Carroll and Baltimore are not bound by this agreement and could annex their way through the middle of this proposed development area. leaving the city sitting high and dry.
The devil, I've heard, is in the details.
Should Pickerington join JEDD?
No: Proposal based on speculation, lacks financial analysis
Thursday, October 12, 2006

Cooperation between the city and Violet Township. Less taxes and more commercial development. Sounds good, right? How could this economic development agreement be anything other than positive?
The proverbial devil is in the details.
The sponsor of this legislation will have you believe ''peace and prosperity'' will flow from this agreement. I prefer to live in a world where facts, figures and scientific studies prove success and provide direction, not one of distorted facts and speculation.
This agreement does not enter us into a commercial development project with the township. It forces the city to give up our right to grow and limits our ability to protect our citizens living along our borders. It gives away one-half of our income tax, forces us to prove our own expenses and further stresses our police force and limited city staff.
We're sacrificing this for an opportunity to talk to the township about possible future speculative agreements? The devil is in the details.
Our former development director documented, in painful detail, the amount of work and analysis that must be performed before entering into any Joint Economic Development District (JEDD) or Cooperative Economic Development Agreement. Instead, we're gambling the future of our city on the prospect of a JEDD someday occurring while sacrificing much as we wait.
The backers of this proposal have not provided a financial analysis showing the financial benefits or detriments to us as citizens. They have not, because you cannot perform a financial study on speculation. It's similar to performing a cost-benefit analysis on playing the Ohio lottery. The devil, they say, is in the details.
Route 33 is being hailed as the Holy Grail for commercial development. Are you aware: 1) Nearly all the open land along 33 is zoned residential. 2) Landowners cannot be forced to rezone commercially. 3) Landowners cannot be forced to put their land into a JEDD, even if they choose to rezone commercially. 4) ODOT has no plans for an interchange in this proposed area of development. 5) Canal Winchester gives 22 percent of its income tax in the CEDA area, and only 10 percent in another annexation agreement to Violet Township, while we're being required to provide 50 percent regardless of circumstances. 6) Canal Winchester, Carroll and Baltimore are not bound by this agreement and could annex their way through the middle of this proposed development area. leaving the city sitting high and dry.
The devil, I've heard, is in the details.
