Pizzino called the meeting to order at 5:30 p.m. at the Jackson Township Hall with all Trustees, Fiscal Officer, Lyon, Fitzgerald and Neftzer present.
Burger moved and Walters seconded a motion to go into Executive Session for Police Department Personnel (Appointment/Employment/Compensation) – Conference with Attorney for the public body concerning disputes involving the public body that are the subject of pending or imminent court action.
Upon return from Executive Session at 6:00 p.m., Pizzino called the General Session to order with all department heads present. He requested that all cell phones and pagers be turned off at this time.
The Pledge of Allegiance was recited.
Public Speaks –None
Police Department
Leslie Kuntz, I’m here on behalf of the
Township. As you’re all aware, the Township had been in the middle
of an arbitration case involving a disciplinary action with Lt. Bruce Wilson.
Specifically on February 26th during some discussions with the union about
that case, the Township was approached by the representatives of Lt. Wilson
about the possibility of entering into a financial settlement in exchange
for his resignation. I will tell you at no time during our discussions
did the Chief or myself ever approach Lt. Wilson about any resignation
or the possibility of a resignation. After consulting with the Chief,
Attorney Greg Beck, Attorney Fitzgerald, Randy Gonzalez as your Financial
Officer, I would recommend the settlement agreement that you have before
you today and ask if you have any kind of questions of myself regarding
that agreement.
Pizzino: Chief did you look at this agreement?
Chief Neftzer: I have had an opportunity to do so, yes, sir.
Pizzino: And you’re (indecipherable)
Neftzer: Well like Leslie said, we were approached about this settlement agreement and after discussing it with her, with Mr. Beck, and our Fiscal Officer, I believe it’s in the best interest of the parties involved for the Board to enter into this agreement.
Kuntz: Any other questions?
Walters: Mr. Fitzgerald, what are your thoughts?
Fitzgerald: I agree with the recommendation of Attorney Kuntz.
Burger: The only comment I have to make is I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Police Officer Wilson for a number of years and with the situation at hand I think that we’ve come to an equitable agreement for his retirement or leaving the department. I’m satisfied with the outcome of the negotiations.
Kuntz: Now just as a matter of clarification, Lt. Wilson had previously retired from employment, I think, at the City of Massillon and had been rehired by us, so this is a resignation not a retirement.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 A
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion
to adopt and authorize the placement of the Board’s signatures upon the
attached settlement agreement and general release.
Kuntz: In addition to the settlement agreement you have before you, the resignation of Mr. Wilson that will be effective at 2400 hours on March 16th and I believe you’ll need to make a motion to accept that.
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion to accept the resignation of Lt. Bruce Wilson effective March 16, 2008 at 2400 hours.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 B
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion
to approve Budget Module 2008-13 for Police Retirement Fund in the amount
of $110,000.00.
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion to approve the purchase order and the issuance of a check in the amount of $110,000.00.
Chief Neftzer explained that this system would eliminate using the black ink pads which did not provide a quality fingerprint. This system is inkless and actually bakes the fingerprint which provides a higher quality print but is not a digital set of prints. Digital prints are still cost prohibitive at this time. This was not in the budget and when the North Canton Elks asked if there was anything they could do for the Police Department, this was suggested to them.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 D
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
to accept a $500.00 donation to Hooked on Fishing from Power Asset Recovery
Corporation.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 E
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion
to approve the appropriation transfer request from account code 209.250.5387,
Discretionary, to account code 209.250.5363, Hooked on Fishing, in the
amount of $1,000.00.
Fire Department
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 F
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
to accept the attached resignation of Full Time Firefighter Brian Dudley
effective March 15, 2008.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 G
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
to accept the attached resignation of Part Time Firefighter Robert Dudley
effective March 15, 2008.
Highway Department
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 H
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion
to approve the appropriation transfer request from account code 204.310.5387,
Discretionary, to account code 204.310.5397, VM Snow Services, in the amount
of $5,100.00.
The Board asked Mr. Boger of the Highway Department, Mr. Ruwadi of the Park Department, Chief Neftzer and Chief Heck to pass their appreciation on to their departments for a job well done during the storm this weekend.
Fiscal Office
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 I
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion
to pay the bills in the amount of $1,556,850.89.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 J
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion
to approve the February 2008 financial reports.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 K
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion
to approve the minutes of the February 25 and March 4, 2008 Board of Trustees
meetings.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 L
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
to create fund #235 for Continued Professional Training Reimbursed Funds
(CPT Reimbursed Fund – Police) and related receipt and expense codes.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 M
Pizzino moved and Burger seconded a motion
to approve the request for additional amended certificate in the amount
of $240,797.83.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 N
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion
to approve supplemental appropriations in the amount of $350,797.83.
Routine Business
Announcements
New Business
Mr. Cezar Bermudez the owner of LaFonda
Mexican Restaurant & Bar at 4700 Everhard Rd., Canton, Ohio 44718 was
in attendance and available for questions.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 O
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
not to request a hearing on the liquor license for LaFonda Inc., dba LaFonda
Mexican Restaurant and Bar, 4700 Everhard Rd. NW. 3-0 yes
Pizzino moved and Walters seconded a motion to accept a $500.00 sponsorship donation to the Community Celebration from ME Companies.
Walters thanked the Police Department for the good job done during the Quaker Steak & Lube incident.
Zoning & Planning Department
At 6:30 p.m., Pizzino opened the Public
Hearing on Zoning Amendment 568-08.
Poindexter pointed out this was originally scheduled as a re-zoning from B-1 (Suburban Office and Limited Business) to B-2 (Neighborhood Business) district. She said the applicant has requested that this be withdrawn.
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 P
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
to accept the letter from Jeff Barber, Barber Architectural Studio withdrawing
Zoning Amendment 568-08.
At 6:40 p.m., Pizzino opened the Public Hearing on Zoning Amendment 569-08. Marketplace at Nobles Pond Development Co. requests to re-zone 5.2671 acres located on Fulton Drive NW from R-R, Rural Residential, and R-1A, Single Family Residential, to B-1, Suburban Office and Limited Business.
Poindexter summarized the Regional Planning Commission findings from the meeting of February 5, 2008 when approval was recommended. She stated the Zoning Commission recommended approval on February 1, 2008.
My name is Tom Winkhart, I serve as general counsel for the Marketplace at Nobles Pond Development Co. and I’m also a vice president of that entity. I’m also a current resident of Nobles Pond. As Joni indicated we’re here tonight on a request for a map amendment for slightly over five acres of land located between the Buehler’s Grocery Store property and the nursing home property at Nobles Pond. As Joni indicated, Stark County Regional Planning recommended approval of the zone change and your Zoning Commission unanimously voted to approve the same. While I assured Mr. Shaheen that my program tonight would be under two hours I am going to try to do an abbreviated presentation because he wants to get over to a fund raiser at Spectators. I had an opportunity to serve with Mr. Benner and several people in this room on the Jackson Township Comprehensive Plan Committee several years ago. During that time and since that time, we’ve seen significant development in what we call Jackson Center or I think is becoming downtown Jackson, such that it is. In probably five years we’ve seen the completion of your Safety Center at the corner of Fulton and Wales Road, the Jackson Local School District has completed significant improvements to the Jackson High School, including a 150,000 square foot addition and a 350,000 square foot renovation. The Paul and Carol David YMCA has been completed just west of this property.
Recently through the help of the Township, Campbell Oil company which owns the Marathon station on the northeast corner of Fulton and Wales was approved for the demolition and reconstruction of that service station and convenience store in a reconfigured format that allows that service center to be pushed back away from the intersection. And as this Board is very much aware, we’re hoping that sometime toward the end of 2009, the intersection of Fulton and Wales reconstruction will be completed such that there will be six lanes through that intersection in all directions. So I think the concept that this area has truly become Jackson Center is coming to a reality. Also as part of that the Marketplace at Nobles Pond has recently completed the construction of a 90,000 square foot Buehler’s Grocery Store and Ace Hardware, a 35,000 square foot strip center behind that, and we’ve seen ground lease tenants in the form of Key Bank, Huntington Bank, which hopefully will start construction here inside of 90 days, the Starbucks, Handels, and Pizza Hut strips out in front. And hopefully, very soon we’ll be in a position to announce the development on the very corner of Fulton and Wales at Nobles Pond.
As Joni indicated this is a little bit difficult to read, but over the last 12 or so years about 300 lots have been developed for residential purposes in Nobles Pond and as many of you know this is a residential subdivision that has sidewalks throughout, uniform street trees, and a homeowners association owned common area that includes a pretty significant pond, Nobles Pond, that serves as a park for that area. This is all zoned Rural Residential. As Joni indicated the property that kind of shows up as burnt orange there is about 5.5 acres that is still currently zoned Residential but is subject to a conditional use permit for the Altercare Nursing Home that’s been constructed there. That is not Aultman Hospital, its Altercare, the Schroyer Group that owns that nursing home. The white property is immediately south of that and located over along Wales Road to the west of the pond are currently zoned R-4 which allows ten units per acre to be developed here and this is a split zoning that allows for, I believe, up to 4 units an acre, a little higher density, cluster type residential development. The light green property is currently zoned, it’s about 24 acres, and is currently zoned B-3 which is our most intensive commercial zoning. And lastly, the purple property is split zoning two residential types of zoning and that’s the subject property that we’re discussing tonight.
One of the things that our comprehensive plan focused on was creating this Jackson Center and one of the elements of that Jackson Center concept was an area of mixed use development. And when I think of mixed use, I think of what we see at Legacy Village or perhaps Easton where we have a vertical mixed use with retail on the bottom, perhaps office on the second and third floor and residential above that. I think we’re all understanding enough to realize that Jackson Township is probably not ready for a vertical form of mixed use development but I think this Nobles Pond area is a very good example of a horizontal mixed use development. Obviously we have a higher end residential area, we’ve got multi-use residential zoning in the whites, we have a commercial area that houses our grocery stores and other retail and then what we’re proposing is to step down to an office zoning and then what I would consider to be an institutional residential use in the nursing home.
A little more specifically this sketch shows the subject property, again, split between two residential zoning districts that sits to the west of the Altercare facility and immediately to the east of the Buehler’s and Key Bank facilities. It’s approximately 5.3 acres and what we’re proposing to have it rezoned to is a B-1 Suburban Office Limited Business District which as you know allows for professional offices perhaps physician offices, lawyers offices, dentists, financial institutions, real estate offices, provided however that no drive-throughs are permitted. I’m showing some buildings on this plan for illustrative purposes only. I currently have two conditional use permit applications pending before the Board of Zoning Appeals. One of them is a conditional use permit for a daycare, the other one is for a planned office complex. As this Board knows you have a provision in your Zoning Code for a planned office complex that allows multiple buildings to be constructed on one parcel. And what we’re suggesting for our development purposes here is approximately an 8,000 square foot daycare with this green space around it and then 5 additional office buildings configured in a way that allows for what we and our land planner believes is good circulation around the buildings and certainly more than ample parking as required under your Zoning Code.
Just a couple things to touch on, the Ohio Department of Transportation has approved a right in and right out means of ingress and egress onto this site which I think is appropriate. A lot of times we would perhaps seek to have a full turning movement there but for those of us and all of us do travel this road quite a bit, I think that it would be a mistake to try to get a full access turning movement right there. You’ll notice that we have a cut through that was part of our overall site plan into the shopping center area and if you come down this road right now toward the Ace Hardware parking lot you can see where that would enter into the office park, so what we would be encouraging the occupants and users of this office park to do is make use of the access through the shopping center to the traffic signal that we built on Fulton Road. So we would only have limited right in and right out onto the site plan itself and that access has been approved by The Ohio Department of Transportation. All of our building setbacks, parking setbacks comply and in fact exceed the zoning requirements, I believe we have a 50 foot setback to the east along Altercare, which is significant because that’s a residential use and our buildings are 75 feet away from that property line already. We hope to maintain some of the existing landscaping along the creek there but the more I look at that the more I don’t think there’s a lot there that’s worthy of being preserved. We had significant meetings with the residents prior to our zoning commission meeting and one of the things that obviously your zoning code requires it but one of the things that we pledged to them was a significant landscaping buffer along the east and south boundaries, very similar to what has already been constructed, screening the back of the grocery store.
By way of example my client has a similar sized office park up at the Washington Square shopping center in North Canton which they also own. This building is an example of the size and quality of construction of the smaller office buildings up there. While I don’t think this architectural style fits, I think you can kind of get a sense for the quality of the construction that would be proposed there. At another office park that we have in the City of Green we’ve constructed a Goddard School which is a daycare facility, this building we just opened up at the corner of Boettler and Arlington Road in Green and the Goddard School is very interested in looking at a site at Nobles Pond and in fact we’ve kind of shown their prototype on this site plan. While we don’t have a lease signed with Goddard School, they’re certainly very interested in this site and we think they’d be a good use for the Nobles Pond area.
One of the things that we did with the neighbors at Nobles Pond was we entered into a declaration of covenance and in this declaration that will be recorded we provided a guarantee, a promise if you will, that the buildings and the building materials would be commensurate with the quality of construction that we used at the shopping center adjacent, all the utilities will be underground, the buildings will not exceed two stories in height, frankly, they probably won’t exceed one story in height. All of the signage will be of the low profile ground mounted signage like the Key Bank sign that is already out there. All of the lighting will use sharp cut off luminaries to avoid any kind of light pollution spilling off of this site, again, similar to the shopping center but as not as intrusive as the shopping center because the lights obviously don’t need to be as tall. And Dr. and Mrs. Crew who live in Nobles Pond kind of right here, off of Fulton Road, on Foxchase were specifically concerned about ensuring that the buildings were all constructed of brick and masonry type finishes all the way around so they wouldn’t look at backs of buildings and that was one of the things that we put in our declaration. And those will be recorded and they run for 99 years with the land. So I would run through the general and specific conditions that the Zoning Commission went through but I’ll hope that you’ll take me at my word that the Zoning Commission went through all of those and accepted those. So I will stand down and if anybody has any specific questions I’ll be happy to entertain those.
Burger: I have a question. When you mentioned a few minutes ago, when they come out of there they come down through the existing exit onto Fulton Road?
Winkhart: Yes.
Burger: And it would be right turn only. Is that correct?
Winkhart: It would be a right turn out of the office park onto Fulton Road heading east and it will be a right turn only into the office park so that cars traveling eastbound on Fulton will only be able to make a right turn into the office park.
Burger: What about the people who want to go west or left.
Winkhart: Then they’ll come through this access point right here and right here is the intersection of Fulton and Foxboro and we constructed a traffic signal there so they’ll have access to make a left hand turn.
Burger: Where the present light is there now.
Winkhart: That’s correct. And also and it’s important cause cars coming east on Fulton Road will have to come all the way down to the traffic light to come in and access this way.
Pizzino: I was reading this, I understand that Regional Planning and our Commission both approved this. There were some concerns and some of the concerns were the right turns, they’re not working well now with the existing businesses we have. What was your comment on that?
Winkhart: Are you reading from the minutes?
Pizzino: Yes. Evidently they were talking about the six lanes, they were going to be widened to six lanes and Mr. Conley’s comment to you, he said the right turns, they were not doing well. And you were going to talk about some barriers or barricades, physical barricades up there.
Winkhart: Oh, what we’ve done, I don’t have a good picture that shows it, but right over here where we have a right in and right out that’s kind of opposite where the BP is and we’ve put up those reflector poles that are there in the shape of the right turn in and out. Those get violated, I’ve seen it happen.
Pizzino: How are you going to correct the right turns on this one here?
Winkhart: Well, when ODOT does their widening project they’re going to put in and I don’t know if they’re going to be curbed triangles if you will or whether they’re going to be rollovers. I think the rollovers tend to work a little bit better only because people will roll over them whether they’re curbed or not. But whatever ODOT specifications are we’re happy to
Gonzalez: That’s going to change.
Winkhart: This will be an interesting area right here because this is kind of where the taper of the intersection improvement comes back so I’m cautiously optimistic that the right in, right out will work, but I certainly advocate anything more than a right in, right out.
Pizzino: And your drainage. Are you telling us your drainage is separate from the center.
Winkhart: It’s interesting. Again, I apologize for not having a better picture, but right down here we have a big detention basin just east of Wales Road. And while a lot of the shopping center used to come into this creek and go into Nobles Pond, now all of that is piped and it goes over to that detention basin. We just met the end of last week with Stark County and they have approved a drainage system that allows all of this site to dump right into the creek. That creek and Nobles Pond serves as a detention basin for about 2500 acres way up to Portage Street and the conventional wisdom is that getting this little bit of water into the system quickly and downstream quickly before the other water catches up to it is a good idea. Currently though we have to in addition to storm water management issues we also have storm water quality issues that we have to deal with. So what we’re doing is working with Julie Berbari to either come up with a storm water quality basin at the very southeast side of this property or maybe do a more of a regional storm water quality basin off of the property onto either Aultman’s property or property on the east side of the creek that is also owned by my client. And I’m not an engineer but I’ll be very interested to see how we get water from the west side of the creek to the east side of the creek, clean it and then put it back into the creek. But we’ll see.
Pizzino: Just a couple more questions, Mr. Winkhart and I’ll pass it on to Jamie or whoever. Mrs. Crew had some concerns and I think that you might have touched on some of them before and again with the back of the building, evidently the Buehler building, does she have a concern with that? You’re going to address this new zoning with a different type of masonry product, I should say?
Winkhart: Yes, the back of a grocery store is what it is and we required Buehlers to use an architectural type block on the back of their building which they did and they also have some colored bands back there. Mrs. Crew doesn’t like the gray architectural block and Mrs. Crew is a really talented artist and I suggested to her that I’m not sure we could do anything, I also suggested that maybe she could paint a mural on the back of it. But the reality of that is it is what it is, we’ve planted a lot of trees in the back of that but obviously that’s a big building. What we’re proposing to build in the office park are much smaller buildings that are finished all the way around, much the way a residential house would be. And she was fine with that and overall she and Dr. Crew are very, very supportive of this.
Pizzino: Okay, at this time
Walters: If I read the materials correctly that the 5.2 acres is actually part of an 11 acre parcel. Did I read that correctly?
Winkhart: That’s correct, yes.
Walters: What do you anticipate for the rest of those 11 acres?
Winkhart: The other parcel that connects with this really it connects at a point, right here, Jamie, and it includes about 6 acres right in this area down here.
Pizzino: Are you talking about all the white area, Tom?
Winkhart: No. Aultman Health Foundation owns a piece of this area, they own this piece here and a piece that comes out this way.
Pizzino: Let me ask you a question on topic here. How do they get to that property?
Winkhart: How does who get to it.
Pizzino: Aultman, get to that back piece of property without being landlocked.
Winkhart: They have frontage right here on Wales Road. They come all the way out and it’s shaped kind of like this, John. So their access is really through what would be Caritas extended east onto this property. The property that Jamie’s asking about is really this property on the east side of the creek over here that’s currently zoned residential. You know, I don’t see any other use for that other than a residential use and it’s currently zoned for a four unit per acre cluster type development which frankly I think makes some sense back there. The other thought would be maybe just one or two really big residential lots and there have been several people that have approached the developer for that kind of a use. As I said at the Zoning Commission hearing it won’t be me coming back asking for a commercial or business use for this property given its proximity to the residential homes in Nobles Pond.
Burger: You mentioned earlier, that creek, it starts up there at 40th Street actually and comes down through there. Does the County have any plans on cleaning that ditch out in the near future? I know living there a number of years that gets pretty full pretty quick down through there and Nobles Pond, the same thing.
Winkhart: I think we all are aware that the County hasn’t done a whole lot over the years with respect to ditch maintenance. But I think that has changed and I know the County has bought quite a bit of equipment for that purpose and I’m personally aware of some significant ditch projects that the County has undertaken to clean out. And as part of our review of our drainage requirements the County is already looking at portions of that creek to be cleaned out. So to answer your question, we’ll see but
Burger: I just wondered because I was at a meeting Saturday morning and Mike Rehfus was there and he did explain some of the equipment that they’re purchasing. So at least I hear it from two different people.
Winkhart: They’ve done a very good job in the few short months they’ve been working on that of cleaning out some real problem areas in the County. So hopefully we’ll get some attention.
Burger: Especially since their hydraulics engineer lives in the Township.
Winkhart: Lives in Nobles Pond.
Walters: I want to make sure I have this correct. We’re talking about that purple spot only. Correct?
Winkhart: Correct.
Walters: Okay. So this is really the remaining part of that 11 acres. Is that correct?
Winkhart: That’s not correct. It’s this piece over here.
Walters: That piece over there?
Winkhart: If you consider this is
about 5.3 acres, Jamie, it’s about this piece right there. Okay.
They’re kind of connected for legal description purposes, not for zoning
purposes, but it’s not the property immediately south. It’s this
property over here.
Walters: And the property immediately
south, you said earlier is also zoned
Winkhart: Residential.
Walters: Residential.
Winkhart: Correct.
Walters: What do you see for it?
Winkhart: It’s currently owned by the Aultman Health Foundation and with a conditional use permit that could be used for parking or some other use that might be ancillary to their B-3 property that is located roughly right in this area here.
Gonzalez: That’s what is confusing there, Tom. The way that green is shown on there it looks like a parcel and it’s not.
Winkhart: It’s zoning. Yes, the colors up there are zoning, not ownership.
Gonzalez: Why don’t you show that line roughly where the Aultman property ends
Winkhart: Aultman has, I think roughly, 12 acres that is bounded on the north side by this zoning line and on the south side by something probably right where I’m drawing it. They wrap up around the pond and come up this way, too. It’s kind of an irregular shaped parcel.
Gonzalez: They come out in front of the lake.
Winkhart: Yes.
Pizzino: And then that R-4 or whatever it is, high density on the other side of that parcel.
Winkart. Right here. Yes.
Pizzino: Okay that’s all my questions. Thank you, Mr. Winkhart. At this time, we’re going to close this part of the hearing. Is there anyone else to speak in favor of this before we do close it, though? Okay. Anyone here to speak against this proposal? Well, I’ll close that part. Okay, gentlemen, what’s your pleasure? (Indecipherable) Mr. Winkhart I believe he answered all our questions. As you know the RPC and our Zoning Board both voted
Walters: Oh, I did have one other question. When do you anticipate construction beginning if it’s approved?
Winkhart: It could be as early as 90 days.
Pizzino: Do we have a motion?
ATTACHMENT 03/10/08 Q
Walters moved and Burger seconded a motion
to adopt the recommendation of the Zoning Commission.
Poindexter: Mr. Pizzino, if I could just make note for the record that there was a sign posted on the property.
Public Speaks – Open Forum
Judy Haas, 5253 Huckleberry St. N.W.,
North Canton, but I really have an important announcement. One of
our fine gentlemen is having a birthday tomorrow and we would like him
to stand so we can sing to him. Bill.
Walters moved and Pizzino seconded a motion to adjourn.
| _____________________________ | _____________________________ |
| John Pizzino, President | Randy Gonzalez, Fiscal Officer |