Pickerington Area Taxpayers Alliance

I think the builders should have a dose of their own medicine. I sent this in as a letter to the editor to one local paper. I do not know if it will see print but I wish to share it here.


To the editor:

''It?’s your customers, stupid!'' I am amazed at the boldness of Pickerington homebuilders. They are marching their attorneys into council meetings threatening lawsuits. They are sending terse letters to the mayor attempting to withdraw school land, greenspace, and school cash donations in an effort to secure ''emergency legislation'' protecting them from citizen referendum action. All of this is an effort to overrun this community with more homes in view of the density limiting initiative on the upcoming ballot. They eagerly lead the charge with a willing city council to run roughshod over what their customers in the community appear to want, controlled growth, limited density and infrastructure that can handle the influx of residents. They are willing to continue to pummel the school system with overcrowding, the very school system that is the number one reason their product sells! This all sounds like bad business to me. Does it to you? Cha-Ching.

I have a few suggestions to solve their dilemma. First, go into the communities where you live and file lawsuits against the restrictive zoning laws that limit building single family homes to low density plats, allowing only large lot sizes per dwelling, and allowing only expensive construction techniques. Places like Powell, Delaware County, Granville and New Albany have such restrictions and these are much more restrictive than the generous two homes per acre issue you face here. Plead to your neighbors that you need to let all types of housing exist in your community regardless of the consequences on your schools and roads. The laws governing how your communities develop have been on the books a lot longer than this proposed law has, your attorneys should have plenty of ammunition to defeat such limits on your ability to make money right in your own hometowns. Then, if it is OK with your neighbors when you are done, come full bore with lawsuits where we live.

Second, do not threaten to withdraw your tax-deductible donations of cash and land to the school system, whose excellence is your marketing bread and butter. You look like a bunch of carping whiners withdrawing your generous $170,000 cash donation, while you expect us to pick up the 2.3 million-dollar plus tab to educate the children your development will bring to our schools.

Third, donate the 21 acres of land in the Reserve at Pickerington Ponds to the Metro Parks, no strings attached, to protect this fragile ecosystem, because it is the right thing to do. If your density is reduced from 2.6 to 2.0 per acre because of this ballot initiative, the lessened impact will help to limit the damage you will cause to this unique resource. Most of us think you shouldn?’t be building there period, so do the right thing, donate without the threats.

get tough page two

Finally, the city council has tools within its power to create a growth management plan and provide a framework of sensibility in the manner in which the community develops. They have chosen not to do any plan of this magnitude to help our community. Because of this failure to act, the citizens have taken matters into their own hands, in the only way they can, to attempt stop the destruction of our community. I believe it is time for the citizens to take another matter into their hands, stop buying from the builders who headline this ''develop my way or else'' profile in our community. There are many choices of developers to buy from. Pass on those who shove their vision of Pickerington down our throats. Just read the paper after the council meetings and you will know who they are. Buy from those willing to work with citizens groups to limit the impact of development on our community and our schools. We have to look at these developments for the rest of our lives in addition to paying for their impact. The least we should expect is a valid voice in determining how much we can take.

Lisa Ross

Take your deal and Shove it!

Lisa,

I hope you have sent that letter to the media. Great job! Maybe also a copy to the Lockville Road Monte Hall?’s (for the younger people LET?’S MAKE A DEAL host). They tell us what a great deal they have for us and no one is allowed to challenge their deal. They (HOMEWOOD) donate 21 acres that they claim is now $1.4 million. The only reason it is worth that much is because the city utility user paid for a sewer and water line down Diley road and the Pickerington City Council just rezoned the property from swamp land to R-4 lots at $35,000 per lot. Please note that is more than twice what Homewood paid per acre for the land. With 7 Yea?’s three times by the City Hall Councilmen the property was transformed in a multi million dollar property. They owner of Homewood only contributed $500 to Randy Hughes 1999 unopposed Mayoral campaign. So if Homewood donated the property why did they leave the donated property zoned as R-4??? I smell a rotten deal once the public isn?’t looking. Does Homewood plan to build on that 21 after they allow the city to sell the property back to them at half price when they have written off the entire $1.4 Million?

What Homewood is afraid of is if this issue 17 passes they will lose 78 lots on that development. Is that two class rooms or three? Can we afford to accept the $170,000 ?“GIFT?”? I don?’t think so. Do they really intend to donate the land (21 acres) at full price write it off on taxes then buy the property back at half price in four years?

Is the Pickerington City Council acting in our behalf? Or are they acting in Homewood?’s behalf? Does Lee Gray still have ties to Homewood? Does Lee Gray have influence over 6 of the Pickerington City Councilmen? He ran phone banks for the four incumbents in the 2001 election and endorsed the Mayor in 1999. So how did a Pizza man raise enough money to buy a $2.3 million strip mall? Is Homewood Corp, Mr. Gray?’s financial backer?

Mr. Bain appears to be very sure of himself, when writing these letters to the Mayor Hughes. Even if Mr. Bain and Homewood Corp walk away from the Reserve with 262 lots plated out he still is making a killing on the property. The land value is near $10 million with only 262 lots. He paid less than a third of that when he bought it plus the $500 to the Randall Hughes UNCONTESTED campaign.

So John Bain, Doug Borror, Don Yoakam, Jerome and others. Let?’s make a deal. You quit dumping your houses on us and we let you sell houses here in Pickerington. Otherwise I hear there is a MORITORIUM on all housing starts coming your way and it will be behind curtain number one. Maybe! Or it could be behind curtain number two! You need to choose carefully because your future here in Pickerington may be limited.


By Billy D. Davis

More to come

Billy D., I guess I am not the only one who feels we should put it to these developers.

There is more to that Diley sewer line in the future, you see the city can roll part of the cost of installing that line into a TIF if somebody decides to build an office building near the line! They are doing this in the Windmiller development and now Cross Creeks has two office sites in a TIF. ( Mr. Berry has or has had land ownership interest in both of these areas, how coincidental)

I guess they needed the TIF at the already created Cross Creeks to '''ATTRACT'' those newer businesses into moving there, incidentally, those businesses moved form other locations in the city, so any property taxes they paid back when they were not in a TIF are gone now as they now have a 75% diversion of their taxes to a fund the city uses to make ''infrastructure improvements'' to ''ATTRACT'' business.

Portions of these sewer lines will be paid for with taxes that should be going to the schools and fire department Billy D.The city utility user is getting a great break don't you think...will it be cheaper for them to pay for school levies because all of the commercial business coming to town will be tax shifting to pay for sewers for the first ten years they are here? When I do the math and I think it is a bad deal all around.

A whole generation of kids will attend school in Pickerington without any new commercial tax base the schools can utilize.