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Roshon Referendum Under Microscope

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Liberty Township
Prosecutor asks court to referee petition dispute

Thursday, July 22, 2004

MICHAEL J. MAURER
ThisWeek Staff Writer

Fairfield County Prosecutor David Landefeld has asked the court of common pleas to referee a dispute between landowners who want to sell their property and neighbors who want to see more carefully controlled growth.

In a July 8 filing titled "petition to determine the sufficiency or insufficiency of initiative part petitions," Landefeld states that newly effective House Bill 262 requires the court to review citizen referendum petitions and tell the county board of elections whether the petitions are valid.

"(The law) requires that this court ... promptly certify its decision to the Fairfield County Board of Elections," Landefeld said in the filing.

Developers, government officials and township residents have been arguing for more than a year about the merits of the project, a planned unit development on 105 acres on Heimburger Lane. The property is owned by township residents Richard and Dorothy Roshon.

The proposed subdivision has drawn attention in Pickerington because of its potential to add 200 homes to the Pickerington Local School District, as well as set a pattern for further development in the largely rural Liberty Township.

When it was originally proposed last year, the PUD design included 240 units, both condominiums and single-family homes. More than 200 township residents crowded into the Baltimore Fire Station to oppose the plan during a June 2003 zoning commission hearing.

After Liberty Township trustees approved the PUD on May 17, opponents, including members of Ohioans for Responsible Rural Development, began organizing to gather at least 144 valid signatures on petitions to put the PUD up for a vote of township residents in November.

The opponents submitted more than 300 signatures to the trustees on June 14. The trustees forwarded the petitions to the Fairfield County Board of Elections on June 28 for signature verification.

Deborah Henderly, assistant director of the county board of elections, said sufficient signatures were validated to place the issue on the ballot.

Acting for the Roshons, Columbus attorney Benjamin Zacks filed a July 2 challenge with the board of elections, stating that the petition suffered several defects, including omitting the number of the zoning resolution to which the initiative petition objected and failing to include a map of the affected area.

In addition, Zacks said the petition language was misleading because it inaccurately states the number of homes and condominiums proposed for the property, it misstates the per-acre density and it incorrectly describes the nature of the procedural actions taken by township trustees on May 17.

Neither Zacks nor the county prosecutor returned telephone calls by press time seeking comment on the proceedings.


mmaurer@thisweeknews.com