Draft Comprehensive Plan Needs Changes to Avoid Flooding Granville Schools

Key Meeting Tuesday, October 27, at 7 pm, Granville Intermediate School

The draft Comprehensive Plan apparently being recommended by the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee this Tuesday night has both significant improvements from the last draft and some areas where improvement is still needed. There remain several big problems and a number of smaller issues.

Don’t Flood the Schools with Kids

The land use classification adds a "suburban residential" category in the Township. This new category originally covered additional vacant land, but after a public uproar, was scaled back to cover only existing patches or "checkerboard" of development. However, the Township should have no suburban residential either in the plan or in their zoning because it allows up to four town homes per acre. The 1990 Comprehensive Plan recommended eliminating all low-density residential zoning in the Township. This was one of the most important and successful changes ever made in Granville’s planning history. (Prior to the 1990 plan, agricultural zoning had a 5 acre minimum, but R-1 and R-2 allowed smaller lots. After the 1990 plan, R-1 required 5 acres (consistent with AG) and R-2 was eliminated altogether.) The existing patches of development should be classified as Rural Residential and grandfathered. To create a new classification is the first step to losing a lawsuit by a developer who wants to put a high density development next to an existing patch of development.

Don’t Flood the Schools with Kids Under the Guise of "R&D"

Some on the committee want to reclassify hundreds of acres from agricultural to research and technology. Careful study of Granville’s zoning during the 1998 Comprehensive Plan Update indicated that Granville already had enough commercially zoned land for a city of 40,000. The addition of acreage to a category already having too much acreage seems unwise. This is particularly the case where most of the acreage zoned research and development is currently just sitting there unused.

Further, the Township has no research and technology-specific zoning district, but it does have a PRO zoning district for "Professional - Research - Office." Oddly, no land is zoned this way. Even odder, the PRO language is unsuitable for significant offices because building size is limited to 5,000 square feet. What it is well suited for is high density residential. This is the zoning that former Township Trustee Eric Jones asked his land be changed to so he could put 50 housing units on 25 acres. Residential is a conditional use. Under the Township zoning resolution approval of a conditional use could be fairly easy. 

So what is the potential impact of this reclassification of hundreds of acres to "R&D?" The answer: hundreds of additional acres that can now have high density housing. This would be very damaging to the school district and would put a significantly increased burden on district taxpayers.

How might this be solved? A simple statement that residential development whereever it is placed in the Township is limited to a density of one house per five acres. Another step that needs to be taken is to have the conservation overlay district apply to R&D land. Conservation design works with office development as well — campus style.

We need to get this right. 

Under the Ohio Revised Code a Township may only have zoning that is "in accordance with a comprehensive plan." The Trustees either have to accurately implement the comprehensive plan in zoning or they may be forced by developers to bring Township zoning into accordance with the comprehensive plan. 

This means the plan must be carefully drafted with close attention to detail. Herein lies one of the significant problems with the current draft. For example, the draft appears to use interchangeably the words "should" and "shall." To say the Township or Village "should" do something is a recommendation that the Township or Village do that thing. To say the Township and Village "shall" do something is a requirement that the Township and Village do that thing. The failure to understand the meaning of language details has already caused the Village to lose a lawsuit after significant legal fees. To win in court, you have to do it right.

There are many places where you would think the word "shall" would be used. For example, "shall" is not used when the plan talks about the following:

• size of retail buildings - this can result in zoning districts that allow medium- and big-box stores 
• drive through lanes - this can result in zoning districts that allow drive through lanes to be in front of a building rather than shielded behind the building 
• traffic safety and accessibility - this can result in zoning districts that will make for unsafe traffic
• …

This is only a small sampling of the language problems in the draft plan. We are confident that the committee does not want to promote medium- and big-box stores, unsafe traffic and the like. Unfortunately in today’s world we have to say exactly what we mean in these critical documents. Otherwise an outside developer will come in and take the community to the cleaners. There needs to be a thorough legal review of the draft plan by counsel knowledgeable in the drafting and interpretation of legislative documents. 

The Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee is holding a public meeting on Tuesday, October 27, 2009, beginning at 7 pm at the Granville Intermediate School, 2025 Burg Street. There is a place on the agenda for "Public Questions and Comments." Copies of the draft Comprehensive Plan are available at the Village offices and in eleven Acrobat files on the front page of the Village website. For your convenience, The Granville Press has prepared a one-file version of the draft plan.