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Jackson trustees vote against rezoning 70-acre parcel for use as warehouse
By Elise Franco
JACKSON — A standing-room-only crowd burst into applause as township trustees voted unanimously against rezoning a 70-acre parcel of land on South Bailey Road for use as a 150,000-square-foot warehouse.
The land, which is zoned R-1 residential, is owned by Mel Cadle and his son Ron Cadle. The pair want the land to be rezoned I-2 industrial to allow a development company to build a warehouse distribution center. The building would have been leased to Anderson- DuBose Co. of Solon, exclusive distributor for McDonald’s Corp. in this region.
Residents vehemently opposed the rezoning and voiced their opinions during a public hearing in late September. The township zoning commission voted 4-1 the same night, advising the trustees not to change the zoning for the land.
Trustee Olin Harkleroad said residents’ opposition to the change played a deciding role in the 3-0 vote against the rezoning during Tuesday’s trustees meeting.
“The land is out of our industrial corridor,” he added.
Harkleroad said the township has plenty of land already zoned industrial and close to railroad tracks, which was one reason the Bailey Road property was so attractive to potential builders.
Tom Warga of Palmyra Road was visibly moved as he addressed the board after their vote.
“I’m extremely proud because I know how hard it is to make that vote,” he said.
Not many other elected officials in that position would have made the same call, he said.
Other residents said their biggest concerns were increased traffic and noise on an otherwise quiet, residential road.
Paul Satterlee of Blott Road said he worried about his home, which sits less than 600 feet from the property.
“I’m concerned about light pollution and noise pollution and my housing value,” he said. “I bought my house for the beautiful landscape.”
Satterlee also said he was skeptical about how many of the stated 144 jobs the warehouse would bring in would go to area residents, rather than “transplants from the other two facilities.”
Of those voicing opinions, only one spoke in favor of rezoning the land.
Alan Wenger said the land was zoned industrial from 1956 to 1997.
“There’s no reasonable basis for not allowing the property to be zoned for its best, most developmental use,” he said.
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Comments
http://www.rateitall.com/i-2687284-zonin...
Zoning deprives and denies an owner of real property the right to use their land to the highest and best use. It is a liberal concept that presupposes that some planning board can make more intelligent choices regarding land use than the free capitalist market can. This interferes with Pareto efficiency. Typically, zoning boards and commissions are composed of liberally-minded snobs who think that their view of the world is the only correct one. Signs are sometimes posted that read "zoned for your protection," but this is a falsehood. Zoning does NOT protect a property owner's rights to use their land for any otherwise lawful use. Zoning does not protect anyones' rights. It is usually used to discriminate against poor people by limiting the construction of apartments, and is also used to force industry into using sub-optimal locations. It is a direct subversion of the free-market system. It reduces freedom, and bolsters the police-state. Zoning needs to be declared unconstitutional. It is a taking.
The only thing that justifies the existence of the plethora of local governments we must endure (and pay for) is the fact that you and I can go to the table where decisions like these are being made and have a voice. Every day in the United States there are city council meetings, board of trustees meetings, and board of zoning appeals meetings being held where people, if not encouraged, are able to voice their opinions, their feelings, or their side of the story in matters that concern and affect them. We are unique in this aspect as Americans.
As I read the article I was reminded that the purpose of zoning is to protect not the property owner's rights but the public welfare. I wonder what Foxtrot (the NATO code word for a Soviet fighter jet) would do if his neighbor started a stone cutting business in the garage and driveway with constant grinding noise and dust. Would he say "Oh well, the free market system will take care of this." I doubt it.
The residents won this case. Next time with better marketing of the project the developers will win - that's the free market system and the true American way.
There are plenty of vacant railroad & freeway accessible sites available in the valley for such a project, where zoning would not be an issue.
maybe it should have been a call center instead of a distribution facility!
The Valley seems to go all out for call centers.