Lake Twp: Complaint withdrawn in zoning case

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The plaintiff in a court case in which he asked the Wood County Common Pleas Court to issue an order to stop excavation work on a construction project along Woodville Road, has filed a request to withdraw his motion.
Dan Prewitt, of Pemberville Road in Lake Township, filed the request May 9 with the court.
On April 22, he filed his initial complaint alleging Hillabrand Holdings had unlawfully proceeded with the excavation of a 7-acre parcel without obtaining a proper zoning certificate.
He also alleged Hillabrand, which owns the property and an adjacent 26 acres, failed to submit plans and specifications and the intended use to conform to the township zoning resolution and the company violated Wood County erosion and sediment control rules.
But he filed to withdraw his complaint after the interim township zoning inspector had the work stopped until a certificate could be issued.
“Due to the recent actions of acting zoning inspector Mark Hummer, ceasing all excavation work which pertains to the Lake Township zoning regulations and Ohio Revised Code, plaintiff is requesting to withdraw his ex parte motion and for the court to dismiss the ex parte motion in its entirety,” Prewitt’s second motion says.
The seven acres are part of a 33-acre parcel that was the subject of a lawsuit between the township and Hillabrand over zoning.
When the township trustees last year rejected Hillabrand’s application to have the 33 acres rezoned from R-2 residential district to a B-3 highway business district classification, the company filed a lawsuit claiming the trustees had denied the company “the economically viable use of the land without substantially advancing a legitimate government interest.”
In a mediated settlement reached in U.S. District Court for Northern Ohio, the trustees and company agreed to a compromise that allows seven acres to be rezoned to B-3.
One day before Prewitt filed his dismissal motion, the trustees had filed a request for an extension to respond to his initial complaint.
Judge Matthew Reger agreed to their request and set June 22 as the deadline to respond.
The contractor which had been depositing concrete and other material at the Woodville Road project has ceased doing so and is using an alternative site, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The contractor had been retained to remove concrete and material from a project along I-280, an ODOT spokesperson said.
Hummer last week said the alleged infractions listed in Prewitt’s complaint had been addressed within a day.
Work has resumed on an earthen mound along the perimeter of the east and south sides of the residentially zoned property, Hummer said.
“That work has nothing to do with what is going to happen on the commercial portion of the property,” he said.