ACTION-PACKED P&Z AGENDA, NEW “BRAINARD CROSSINGS” RESTAURANT AND MORE

P&Z AGENDA

Looks like the Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) will be quite busy July 28^th.

First up:

 A public hearing (public comment allowed) on a neighborhood challenge to a large deck that was built in May adjacent to a pre-existing, Rutland Drive above-ground swimming pool.

While the city’s zoning code allows pools to be placed within 10 feet of rear property lines, decks cannot.
A 40 foot setback applies to decks.

In a bizarre twist of events, Law Director Tim Paluf---with the full support of Mayor Scott Coleman---overruled Building Commissioner Dale Grabfelder, who had officially, and in writing, determined that the deck violated city zoning laws.

You might wonder:

What is Paluf’s rationale for overruling an official Tear Down order, especially one that the pool owners themselves agreed to comply with?

Apparently it's Paluf position that by being placed next to it, the self-standing deck suddenly and miraculously became part of the above-ground pool itself, thereby qualifying for a 10 foot setback.

Interesting logic, no?

While I might expect that kind of “creative” thinking from a private attorney representing a private client in a negotiation or litigation, it’s not what I expect from a municipal Law Director.

I guess I’m just naïve.

I always thought that it was a Law Director’s job to back up city administrators in their attempts to enforce city zoning codes---not throw them under the bus.

Particularly galling to Rutland Drive neighbors, when they met with Mayor Coleman and the Law Director, was Paluf’s insistence that the humongous, 6 foot tall, self-standing deck was no different than an on-ground cement collar placed around an in-ground pool in Paluf’s own neighborhood.

If that’s really the case, do you suppose Paluf would be willing to swap his pool vista for theirs?

You have to wonder:

Would Paluf espouse a different legal theory if the huge towering deck sat 11 feet behind his rear property line?

Also on P&Z's July 28th agenda, these items:

Grind Burger, reportedly a chain out of Arizona, has applied for a liquor permit and is planning to open a restaurant in the newly renovated “Brainard Crossings” (aka Catalano’s) building.
It will be joining Fitworks, a tanning salon and a Chiropractor’s office----making that plaza a unique one-stop shopping locale.

Get a tan. Work out. Get a back adjustment. Then eat, drink and be merry.

DEICING FRACK DRILLING BYPRODUCT
WILL THE CITY USE IT?
ISSUE STILL ON THE TABLE

Council’s Safety Service Committee  (SSC) met with Service Director Thom Evans to talk about his request to install liquid deicing equipment on a new city salt truck.

The controversy doesn't revolve around the concept---spraying liquid to make rock salt adhere better on winter roads, thereby increasing its effectiveness and decreasing the amount used.

It involves the kind of liquid deicer Evans plans to use on city streets.

At a recent Committee of the Whole meeting, Evans told Council he planned to use “AquaSalina,” which he claimed was:

 “…from natural salt water. It’s not frac (frac drilling) water or frac (drilling) related.”

If only the reality matched his words.

In fact, “AquaSalina” uses frac drilling production water---a toxic mix of drilling mud chemicals, water (saline and non-saline, both injected and displaced by drilling) and other compounds (some benign, some not) released by drilling.
The production water is supposedly “purified” in some fashion (generating an additional environmental problem: the disposal of removed toxic solids) and is sold to cities as liquid deicing brine.
For more about “production water” read my prior blog:

http://highlandheightsohiohappenings.blogspot.com/2014/06/city-supports-frac-drilling-industry.html

Chairwoman Lisa Stickan seemed hesitant in discussing the deicing issue with Evans.
At the end of the meeting she simply sidestepped the AquaSalina issue, declaring that she  was:

“…comfortable with the fact that the equipment is in the budget and comfortable with getting brine in Lynhurst (which mixes its own rock salt-based saline solution).
I think we should go forward for purposes of outfitting the vehicle.
I prefer to focus instead on whether the truck and Mr. Evans' equipment request were in the budget."

It's been my observation that Evans tends to push back when he gets frustrated or angry, and I saw some pushing back when SSC members attempted to discuss his proposal to use AquaSalina on city streets.

He stated that he "didn't bring his file" to the SSC meeting and that he had "no additional information" to share about the product.
Evans also claimed:

I was comfortable at the (June 17^th) Committee of the Whole meeting that Council was comfortable with it.
I said to Mrs. (Councilwoman Ann) D’Amico that if she wasn’t comfortable we shouldn’t go forward.  She said she was.
….The feedback that I had was that Council was completely happy with it.”

The rub here, of course, is that at that meeting Evans claimed that AquaSalina didn’t have anything to do with frac drilling.
Council didn't have all the information that (perhaps) they should have had, when they supposedly expressed their "complete happiness" with Evans' plan...a fact that should have been pretty apparent to Evans by the time he showed up at the SSC meeting.

And so it goes.
Stickan reported to Council that SSC:

“..as a whole recommended passage because it was in the budget .. (SSC) plans on continuing the discussion on the AquaSalina product.”

Based on that recommendation, Council approved Evans’ truck equipment request.

MIDYEAR BUDGET REVIEW: THINGS LOOK GOOD SO FAR

Finance Director Joe Filippo provided a positive mid-year budget report at last Tuesday’s Council meeting.

Income tax collections are up 3.98% over budget projections and expenses are running at about 45% of projections.

Although this revenue pool will dry up very soon due to a change in state law, the city’s estate tax revenue is also up above projections this year.

Filippo gave his blessing to a proposed tax abatement agreement, applying to a significant facility expansion by Eighth Day Sound Systems, Inc.

The company will receive a 50% real estate tax abatement for 15 years on the new addition.

The company’s original tax abatement deal will be expiring soon, and Filippo projected that the amount of real estate taxes that the city gives up in the new deal will be covered by additional  property tax that the company will pay once the original abatement agreement ends.

Council will vote on the tax abatement agreement and other legislation during a Special meeting on Tuesday.

RETROACTIVE CANCELLATION AND PARK & REC TROUBLES CONTINUE

RETROACTIVE CANCELLATION?

The official city calendar is handily available online, on the city’s website: www.highlandhts.com.

The calendar shows all of the various activities going on in the city each month.

Interested residents checking the calendar late in the afternoon last Tuesday would have seen an 8 pm listing for a regularly-scheduled, bi-weekly Council Committee of the Whole meeting.

Boy would they have been surprised if they showed up for that meeting.

City Hall was dark and locked up tight.
Despite being listed on the official calendar, no Council meeting was actually held.

I had a little chuckle when I looked at the official calendar yesterday.

The listing for last week’s Committee of the Whole meeting had mysteriously disappeared. 

Do you suppose that’s Council way of retroactively cancelling the meeting?

It reminded me of a news story I just read, about Russians purportedly attempting to rewrite history by changing Wikipedia entries.

 Ah, how lucky to be a politician, living in this electronic age...!

DAY CAMP STILL LOSING MONEY

The Park & Recreation Commission (P&R) found itself with serious budget troubles a couple years back.

In addition to bloated payrolls, another significant contributor to P&R’s fiscal woes was the city’s summer day camp program.

It was bleeding money.

The day camp program is a throwback to former times, when the world was populated with stay-at-home parents who looked to city-run day camp programs to amuse and distract their kids part-time, for a couple of weeks each summer.

The day camp is a non-starter for most working parents.

With its limited operating hours and schedule it's not a good substitute for full-time summer day care.
Clearly it struggles to compete with the many more robust camp programs that are readily available in the area.

Despite all that, P&R has soldiered on with the program.

P&R raised fees and convinced city leaders to spend over $100,000 to install a new party barn in the park, to use as the camp home base during the day.

So did it work?

Do the numbers justify continuing the program?

Decide for yourself.

These are the numbers, as reflected in the 2014 Official City Budget:

Actual 2013 day camp revenue: $59,325.

Actual 2013 day camp expenses: $67,396.

For those not good at math, that adds up to a $8,071 operating deficit.

The bleeding continues….

A NEW P&R PROBLEM: STAFFING THE POOL

On June  24th Council suspended the required readings (again) and passed as an emergency measure (again) Resolution 7-2014:

..authorizing a mutual exchange of service agreement with the City of Mayfield Heights and the Village of Mayfield to provide for the mutual exchange of Lifeguard Services during the 2014 Summer Season…

Council President Cathy Murphy stated at the June 17^th Committee of the Whole meeting that the legislation was:

"..necessitated because the college kids leave at the end of the summer.”

Mayor Scott Coleman backed up that version of events, telling Council that:

“At the end of the year and at other spot times during the year we share lifeguard services. “

Subsequent events, however, have me questioning the stated rationale.
I have to wonder:

Was it just political spin, offered up by our elected city leaders, to cover mismanagement by P&R Director Dave Ianiro?

Right after the legislation was enacted---when the summer pool season was well underway--- the city’s “Emergency Red” electronic sign boards flashed “Help Wanted” signs, seeking Lifeguards for the city pool.

Suddenly the legislation looked less like an attempt to address “end of the year” staffing issues and much more like an attempt to cover current staffing problems.

What's going on?

With P&R involved, it’s always hard to tell.

After the "Help Wanted" signs appeared I had the opportunity to talk to someone who is working as a lifeguard this summer.

The individual, an experience lifeguard and a Highland Heights resident, is working elsewhere---not at the Highland Heights pool.

“Why not?” I asked.

The individual told me that they sent out a bunch of job applications last winter, looking for summer lifeguard work.

A nearby city contacted and hired the individual in January.

The individual didn’t hear a word from Highland Heights for months... and months.

Finally, in May, a week or so before beginning their summer lifeguard job, the individual received a call from Highland Heights.

Too little, too late.

With Resolution 7-2014 Council has managed to put a Bandaid on the situation….at least for this year.

But the question remains:

What about next year?

GAS WELLS, ZONING ISSUES, TRANSPARENCY (OR LACK THEREOF) AND MORE

ANOTHER GAS WELL IN CITY?

At this week’s Council meeting Building Commissioner Dale Grabfelder reported that residents had contacted the city after receiving a letter from an energy company, informing them that a “frac” gas well was going to be installed on residential property located at 916 Lander Road.
Grabfelder stated that the city hadn’t received any documentation concerning the purported gas well.

Typically drilling companies use independent contractors (aka “landsmen”) to obtain necessary drilling leases, thereby insulating themselves from liability for anything the landsmen do or say.

Pretty sweet, no?

Ohio law requires 20 contiguous (touching) acres of land in order to drill a gas well. 
While drilling companies can apply to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources to force property owners to join a drilling pool, they can only do that after they obtain almost all of the land they need on their own.

One tactic that drilling companies and landsmen have been known to use is to categorically state that a gas well is going in and then use that statement to pressure and/or leverage residents into signing drilling leases.
They convince residents that a gas well is a “fait accompli”-----even if it isn’t.

The financial reality of gas wells isn’t necessarily what you’d think.

It’s not like the Beverly Hillbillies.

Wholesale gas prices have dropped dramatically over the last few years.
Gas wells have a fairly limited life and typically are most productive during the first two years, after which production falls dramatically.
And royalties are paid not based on gross production but on “net” revenue----as determined by the drilling companies themselves.

If that sounds like a good deal to you, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.

To keep gas wells out of residential neighborhoods, residents need to do just one simple thing:

Just Say No

If a drilling company doesn’t have lease rights to 20 touching acres of land, they can’t drill.
It’s that simple.

INCREASING LACK OF TRANSPARENCY
This week’s Council agenda included these two items:

• 5. Proposed Ordinance assessing the cost of abating a certain nuisance, and declaring an emergency.

• 6. ..Proposed Ordinance 15-2014 approving the editing and inclusion of certain ordinances as parts of the various component codes of the Codified Ordinances of Highland Heights and declaring an emergency.

I know, I know.
There they go again, declaring every piece of legislation an emergency…even when it’s not.
I read the agenda and thought:
What Nuisance? What Ordinances?

Guess it’s a secret.

While no one wants an agenda the size of a paperback book, it would take little space to add a property address or list the numbers of the ordinances being amended.

But, increasingly it seems, Council seems to want to keep everything “hush, hush”.
Which makes me wonder:

Public business Is Supposed To Be Public….Isn’t It?

BISHOP ROAD WOODLAND PRESERVE…
CLOSER TO REALITY?
The Euclid Creek Watershed Partnership included this item in their latest newsletter:

“Planting Day in Highland Heights
Sat, Oct. 10, 9:00am-1:00pm. Bishop Road property.
More details coming closer to the date.”
www.EuclidCreekWatershed.org

Sounds like the city’s new Woodland Preserve is moving ever closer to becoming a reality.
Mark your calendars and get your shovels ready!

MAJOR EXPANSION OF FORMER
BROWN FLYNN PARKING LOT
The former Brown Flynn building on Wilson Mills Road (across from FitWorks) is sitting on what used to be a residential lot.
The front part of the property was rezoned several years ago, to allow for business use.
The back portion is still zoned for residential use.

The Brown-Flynn building has been sold.
The individual who bought it (who has been referred to as an anesthesiologist, but who a source in the know tells me is a nurse anesthetist) apparently intends to install a billing company there.

It must be quite a large company.

The new owner wants to double the parking lot…which means removing many mature trees and expanding access to the rear of the building.
Needless to say, the abutting neighbors are quite upset.

Traffic, noise, lower property values and a loss of privacy are just a few of their concerns.

At this week’s Council meeting, Councilman Bob Mastrangelo, a Planning & Zoning Commission (P&Z) member, indicated that the business owner had agreed to modify his plan, reducing the number of new parking spots to be installed from 13 to 9.

The city’s zoning code contains setback and landscape buffer requirements that apply to business parking lots.

Nearby neighbors will be out of luck trying to oppose the expansion if the parking lot meets those requirements.

POOL DECK CONTROVERSY CONTINUES
I recently blogged about an enormous deck that was built adjacent to an established above-ground pool on Rutland Drive.
The edge of the deck is approximately 11 feet away from the rear property line.

Impacted neighbors have pushed back, insisting that the city enforce the 40 foot setback requirement applicable to decks set out in the Highland Heights zoning code.

City Law Director Tim Paluf, backed up by Mayor Scott Coleman, insists that the self standing deck is not a "deck" at all, but a part of the previously installed above-ground pool.
Calling it a "pool" renders the deck legal because pools can be as close as 10 feet from property lines.

There's one problem with Paluf's reasoning....

It's called the Highland Heights zoning code.

Pools are unambiguously defined in the zoning code.
Ordinance 1319.01 states that a "pool" is an "excavation or depression...designed or constructed to hold or retain water". Period.

Is a deck an "excavation designed to hold water"?

According to Paluf and Mayor Coleman the answer, apparently, is yes.
The neighbors, quite sensibly, disagree.

They appeared before P&Z this week, after filing an appeal challenging the building department’s after-the-fact issuance of a deck permit to the pool owners.
Watching from the sidelines were the pool owners and what appeared to be 8 family members.

Spokesperson Grant Mackay, who lives directly behind the pool, described some of what now sits on the enormous deck: an outdoor storage unit, a full set of patio furniture, over 100 LED lights and a potted tree.
Comparing the size of the pool with the size of the deck, Mackay commented:

You can have more people on the deck than in the pool.

Mackay told P&Z:

“We aren’t looking to make trouble and I know that mistakes happen. Mistakes happened here, but we weren’t the ones that made the mistakes. We are looking (to the city’s zoning code) for protection.”

The matter has been set down for a public hearing on Monday July 28^th.