Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

Setting up a new camp

I see that the Jeff Fix band wagon is beginning to slow. Mr. Fix should be viewed by all as a very dangerous person in our community. I do not mean a dangerous person in terms of doing physical harm to anyone but to do financial harm to the community and the PLSD. For months now I have read articles and in many cases Mayor Shaver and Jeff Fix have placed their collective position on the fact of trust and the lack of trust of the township trustee toward the City of Pickerington. Even as I read the posting of Mr. Fix's comments I see his references to this same principle.

So I ask those in the township and those that have greater political ambitions in the city do you have a mistrust for the Pickerington City Hall and if so why?

If the answer to the above question is yes then do you also have similar mistrust for cities like Reynoldsburg, Canal Winchester, and Lithopolis?

I mention the above three cities because they currently have recently annexed into Violet Township. The most obvious threat and the closest would be Canal Winchester. Does the CEDA agreement between Canal and Violet prevent Canal from annexing into the PLSD? The fact is I think they already have. Since Pickerington and Violet have very low density zoning what is to keep the builders from now applying to Canal for annexation and High density zoning? Granted the housing market is down right now but what happens when it fires back up. There has not been a plat approved in the City of Pickerington since 2002.

Since most of the utilities are present in southern Violet Townships and the land is already zoned residential what is to keep Canal from coming into Violet Township with very high density and annexing to Baltimore? If they annex minimum amounts of road way then it will be a no-brainier for Canal. They don't have to worry about the schools they have very little road way to bother with and the Sheriff will provide police and the township fire. I suspect if you run the numbers Canal would make money on this and PLSD would lose. With Pickerington's hands tied Canal would be allowed to annex at will.

Does elections every two years bring in new faces and new ideas? Is it possible that pro-growth candidates could be elected in Canal or have they are already been elected? Remember they had a change of management in the last two years.

Maybe you are cutting on the wrong city.

follow Canal politics

maybe you ought to follow Canal politics a little, sure they would like areas around 33, for the dollars they bring... but the rest no, do you think they have some formula where residential development covers the costs it creates...I do not think so and I believe citizens in Canal would not allow this.

Screwed, blued, and tatooed

First of all I grew up in Canal Winchester. If you look at the back ground of those now serving on council and the Mayor an entirely new public policy is emerging.

Last year Francis Steve was voted out of office. She was a very conservative person that did want the village to lose that home town image. They have Steve Donahue on council who was given another four years. Mr. Donahue was my High School Principal and later the CW School Superintendent. Steve has been very involved in controlling the rate of growth for the Canal Winchester schools. However in recent years that has gotten away from the Village. What has raised a level of concern is the fact that in the last year Lithopolis has annexed across the Canal?’s southern borders. The school boundaries out there are really screwed up in that they intertwine with Bloom Carroll district. The latest round of annexations by Lithopolis has also annexed 100s of acres in the CW school district. Up to now CW has been very protective on their school district lands.

If you recall the CW development director got fired last year and I believe it was because he opened his mouth and it offended the new Mayor Miller. This Mayor Miller has also been very vindictive in his running of the city and he was livid about the Lithopolis annexations. He is a very slick Mayor and he has withheld his plans from council and most of last year he was at odds with that council. They want to get to the Moore Farms that is located in Bloom and Violet Twps. With Lithopolis cutting them off at the pass their only path to those 900 acres is through Violet Township.

The second issue is that since Pickerington has not annexed the acreage south of Busey there is concern that there new retail center and the Meijer?’s store will suffer with a lack of customers. So more houses would benefit the retail development down near Diley and US 33.

I have a retired friend that is a city planner. Residential development does lose money in most cases. However if that was the only reason to annex for residential property then places like Park Place would not exist. There is a scenario down south and east of the CEDA that is in the PLSD that would be very close to a revenue neutral residential development for Canal Winchester. It would kill the PLSD but with Violet Township neutering Pickerington in this agreement they would have no fear of any completion or fear that Pickerington could do the same to the CW schools. If CW was able to acquire the entire 600 acres within the five parcels then they could be to Allen Road. Ready for the Carroll interchange to be built. The point is that they could get all the way to Allen road and only maybe have a half mile of Pickerington Road in the Village of Canal Winchester. CW wouldn?’t be responsible for the education and they would get customers for their stores at the new Diley Center. It would also set them up for the industrial development along Allen Road. The JEDD agreement with Pickerington will never come into play folks.

Welcome to Canal Winchester

You are right on!

This has to be the best, eye opening posting, you get what's goin' on, posting i've ever read on this site. Except Francis last name is Steube. This agreement Fix is proposing is ridiculous just from the stand point of the Snider-Thornton annexations that are in court? What if they go to Canal? Do a three way JEDD and divide the money to smitherines? Oh wait, don't forget the county. Better make it a 4-way J-J-J-JEDD. By the way, Mr. Hogan left his job with the county and is now working for URS engineering and doing work for the city. Mr. Rector has left the county and has headed to Licking county. I smell the debt of a water and sewer plant down south starting to stink.

By Eye from Canal