Serving Lucas, Ottawa, Sandusky and Wood Counties
Village council members in Walbridge heard from a few citizens regarding the potential rezoning of 508 Union Street from residential to heavy industrial at the April 15 regular meeting.
The property is officially part of Lake Township, although it sits directly adjacent to and heavily impacts Walbridge.
Charlotte Costanzo, of 505 East Union, initially spoke out against the measure at the April 7 meeting of the Wood County Planning Commission. The members of that panel unanimously voted against the proposed rezoning of the land.
Ultimately, however, the Lake Township zoning board will host a hearing on April 23 at 6:30 p.m. regarding the matter in the township’s administration building. That meeting is open to the public. Following that, they will make a recommendation to the township’s trustees, who will ultimately have the final say.
“The zoning board could say, ‘We unanimously say this is not a good idea. We don't support it.’ And the trustees could, in fact, say yes,” Walbridge mayor Ed Kolanko said. “I'm just giving you the scenarios.”
But Costanzo and other residents are doing all they can to fight it. At the latest Walbridge council meeting, she reiterated several of the same concerns she had brought forth at the planning commission meeting.
“We are here to urge you and encourage you to do everything you can to stop this,” she said. “Having a heavy industrial area right in the middle of a quiet neighborhood is not a great idea. It's going to do a great deal of damage to the village … I urge all of you to take every step that you possibly can to stop it.”
Costanzo said she has contacted her state representative, as well.
Kolanko, who is against the rezoning, has spoken with some of his contacts at the state’s environmental protection agency (EPA).
“They’ve kind of acknowledged some of the concerns that you've already brought forward,” he told Costanzo. “There is some connections there. That ball’s in motion.”
Lisa Cisterino, a Walbridge resident of 507 East Union for approximately 30 years, also spoke out against the rezoning request at the council meeting.
“I get to see a lot what's going on across the street, and of course, it's been quiet and everything,” she said. “I will say (508 Union Street landowner Thomas Kepler) was approached by several people about maybe selling to residential and maybe building something back there … I would not be opposed to that at all, but this clean stuff that (Kepler) says is going to be put back there, I don't think there's any such thing as clean construction or anything like that. We're just all sticking together here and hoping for the best. We just don't want it. I don't think our roads can support it.”
Kolanko followed Cisterino’s comments.
“Unfortunately, I feel that there is already a preconceived business deal on the back end, assuming that this zoning change would go through,” he said. “I support you guys. I support the village of Walbridge. I don't think that this is the right fit either.”
Kolanko said he wasn’t told about the potential rezoning until two days prior to the Wood County Planning Commission meeting on April 7.
“The communication from our neighbors, there's some work that could be done,” he said. “We'll put it that way.”
He also expressed further dissatisfaction with how the process has gone.
“Now it's my understanding that they, the (Lake Township) administrator and trustees, or either/or, had told Mr. Kepler how to approach the zoning. That’s kind of concerning. We hope that they're good neighbors, and they do the right thing by voting no.”
Costanzo questioned Kolanko on whether Lake Township would also be breaking its own zoning laws and standards for heavy residential should they rezone.
“There’s also some considerations, one the road that comes into town, Walbridge Road,” Kolanko said. “Through trucks are prohibited on that road, and even an empty flatbed truck is going to exceed the weight limit the road was built for. We as a village, assuming that there was yes votes from the trustees, we would not stop there. We would still pursue (fighting) it because that's not good for the village or the infrastructure.”
Flood plain concerns could also be an issue with the Ohio EPA, as well.
“There is a lot of EPA (aspects),” Kolanko said. “There's a lot of planning (aspects). The State of Ohio, Army Corps of Engineers, I was encouraged to call them as well. There's a lot of people, I think, that would want to have their input on that process. To my understanding, none of that has happened at this point in time. And that's not for us.
“You would think that this process would have been a little bit more transparent than what it is now. And that's just unfortunate … still, at this point, there's been no communication from Lake Township as it relates to this. It’s troubling. This is what we’ve lived with for many years.”
Following the discussion, members of the Walbridge council unanimously passed a resolution via emergency to show their non-support of the rezoning measure.
“I had a conversation with the mayor recently,” Walbridge council president Thomas Urbina said. “He was really good in getting at least this resolution put together. That way, we can at least get something on the books today saying, ‘Hey, we don't like this and we oppose it.’ We're going to start there.”
