Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Trustees in Jerusalem Township have been debating a proposed change in zoning that currently bans shipping containers on properties over 30 days in the township.
Citizens had a chance to be heard June 5 at a public meeting, which was the latest step in the debate over the topic, which started with a citizen-initiated request in February from Heather Prokopow.
“It’s an easy way for a lot of people to store items,” Prokopow said at the meeting. “It can help clean up properties by allowing them to put all those miscellaneous items within that shipping container, and it’s a lot more affordable than a lot of these other options.”
Prokopow said that people have said you can get a shack from Menards for $4,000-$5,000 as an alternative, but that’s not ideal.
“Often times those aren’t as weather proof as the shipping container, and they’re double the cost,” she said. “There are also a lot of people who have shipping containers already that were grandfathered in. We’re just requesting that (the limit) be removed entirely.”
Those that are grandfathered in are those who took advantage of the ability to do so prior to the last change in the amendment in 2017. In fact, two of the three trustees in the township, Beau Miller and Dave Bench, are grandfathered in.
PUBLIC COMMENT SOUGHT
The third township trustee, Alex Lytten, said that while he wasn’t around in 2017 for the previous update to the regulations, he suspects citizens didn’t get a fair crack at discussing the topic when it was changed back then.
“I don't know that for a fact, but a zoning amendment that came through a couple years ago by a previous zoning inspector and zoning board definitely did not follow proper procedure, which leads me to believe that anything that happened over the past few years wasn't done properly to begin with,” he said. “So, they were banned at that time, but I don't think the people really had a fair opportunity to voice their opinions back then. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty certain that's what happened.”
This time around, Lytten is encouraging people to make their opinions heard. As of now, most of the urge to do away with the 30-day limit stems from a small group.
“I want to hear from as many people that can reach out to me to tell me their opinion because, honestly, I've heard there’s a few residents that live on one particular street that have raised a significant number of concerns, but I'm a scientist by trade and the way I look at it is a sample size of your data set and my sample size is very, very small on this particular topic. So I'm looking to get a bigger sample size of people that live all across the township and a greater number of people.”
Outside of the hearings, Lytten estimates that he’s heard from less than 10 people so far directly.
CURRENT STATE OF THE PROCESS
As of now, the trustees are in a 20-day window following the public hearing in which they either have to decide to vote yes on the amendment, vote no, vote yes with restrictions or vote to not make a decision at all, which is basically a no. And they have to do it in a public setting.
Thus, Lytten said the topic will be further discussed at the next regular council meeting on June 24 at 7 p.m., and a final decision will be made then.
“It's kind of up to (the trustees) personally to just use any information at our disposal to kind of figure out what we want to do, which could include talking to different agencies and different entities like county engineers and whatnot, as well as listening to public input,” Lytten said.
FLOODPLAIN
One of the talking points during the public hearing centered around potential restrictions at the county and state levels in regard to shipping containers in the township due to approximately 70 percent of the township being on a floodplain.
Lytten, however, said that percentage can be misleading.
“Seventy percent is within the floodplain, but a good chunk of that 70 percent is parks, which this wouldn't really be applicable to, and agriculture, which under Ohio law, township zoning cannot regulate anything to do pretty much anything to do with agriculture,” he said. “So, you're really talking a small number of residential homes and businesses.”
Lytten noted that there’s nothing legally the township can do to prevent shipping containers on farms and agricultural properties right now, although there’s not that many farmers that have shipping containers.
Lytten also noted that, while there is potentially quite a complex and costly set of rules in the county and state levels beyond any township zoning amendment they make, his job is to make the best decision for the township. Whatever happens beyond that in terms of regulations isn’t up to the trustees.
“I don't want to say it's not my job, but it's not within the scope of our duties to deal with that,” Lytten said. “Our township has a history of stepping on the toes of the County Engineer's Office and other entities, and I don't really want to do that. Our zoning regs are our zoning regs, and they've got their regs too. They do their thing. We do our thing. I'm not really looking to step on their toes.”
“When we come up with zoning rules or pass things in regard to zoning, they're applicable across the township. And for example, let's say that we say, yes, we want shipping containers. It's then up to the next entity, which should be the engineer's office to implement their floodplain regulations and how that relates to you know having shipping containers within floodplain.
“So if that is being thrown at us as the trustees as sort of a, well, it's going to be difficult and expensive to put in the shipping containers so they claim … and they're trying to use that as, well, why don't you just say no, because it's going to be difficult and expensive in theory (that won’t be an issue). It's being thrown up as a roadblock, even though it really has very little to do with the task at hand.”
NOVEMBER LEVIES
Lytten confirmed that the township plans on putting two levies – road/bridges and fire department – back on the November ballot after recent failures at the polls. They have also decided not to put the recreation levy back up. The plan is to have public hearings to discuss those ballot measures.
“Us as trustees are legally obligated to do what we can to keep the roads in good shape, which would include putting road and bridge levies on the ballot,” Lytten said. “We're legally obligated to do that. We have to do that. I get that people are fed up with their house taxes, and I get that, but this is something we're obligated to do. And truthfully, we need the money because Lucas County has dumped a bunch of roads on us in this past year or two, which is double the amount of roads that we need to take care of.”
The topic of additional roads being added to the township’s oversight was previously discussed in The Press this spring.
“Technically as it is right now at the end of this year, our recreation fund is going to expire so we'd either have to pull money out of our general fund to fund recreation department activities or end them,” Lytten said. “I think we’re going to be looking at ending them because we will need the money for the road and bridge and fire department (levies).”
SUMMER SLATE
The township will have a reduced summer regular meeting schedule – similar to many other townships, villages and cities around the area. Lytten said the plan is to have one meeting in June, one in July and one in August. That begins with the June 24 meeting at 7 p.m., which will include a decision on the shipping containers. Meetings are held in the meeting room of the township complex.
MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD
Lytten reiterated the importance of letting the trustees know your opinion on the shipping container issue.
“It would be awesome if I could get more people to reach out to me, because there’s been a very small number of people from one street that are not happy with shipping containers,” he said. “There hasn't really been a broad spectrum of residents across the township which kind of leads me to believe that they really don't care. But, it could be otherwise, which is why I'd really like to hear from as many people as possible.”
Lytten can be reached at his township office at 419-836-8921.
