10/20/2008 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting 10-20-08 Page 14 Mrs. Mills said they voted in Finance and it was 2-1 to purchase it. Mrs. Mills decided to discuss it further so that we could clear the air and get things open. Council President Buckholtz asked if there were any other comments. Mr. Marrie said he had questions before. He thought it was part of protecting that so it couldn't be developed into a commercial property. His concern was that we already have an ordinance that says we are protected. It would have to go to a vote. That is where he had some concerns. Mayor Rinker replied that a referendum vote does not change whether or not it is the appropriate zoning. Referendum voting is an important mechanism and typically referendum voting allows issues to be aired through a more methodical process and, if it's done well, then everybody comes away with a good understanding and the vote is significant. We have done that over the time Mayor Rinker has been in public office twice on zoning issues, one was to rezone the Marathon gas station and for the D.O. Summers, it was a change of use and the other was the Krenzler property that was rezoned. Mayor Rinker thought overall that was extensive discussion. Mayfield Village in fact went through a referendum vote in the late 70's which our appellate court, affirmed by the Supreme Court, struck down as unconstitutional because in the Court's words, it was basically, whether you do it through a referendum vote or the Council does it, if it is a bad decision, it's a bad decision. Mayor Rinker thinks everyone needs to understand that just because we have referendum voting does not insulate us from a challenge and just because we have zoning does not insulate us from a challenge. Nobody has raised that challenge. Mayor Rinker thinks one of the reasons, and he is not trying to sound complacent here, is because we have been very methodical in the way we have looked at the land use development of the Northwest Quadrant. It really has been treated as a very comprehensive whole. It's over 300 acres when you look at White Road down to Highland, S.O.M. to 271. The pieces that we have put together, some had been much larger than others. This is one that we have looked at. Just because we have looked at it does not mean automatically it should be. Mayor Rinker stated he will confess, he reacted immediately when he heard this tonight because he is baffled as to how we would come to this point to have this discussion. Mayor Rinker does not understand why it would take us this long to raise these questions because these are all thoughtful questions but to him, to wait until we are ready to vote and raise it tonight seems to be ill timed. That is what he is reacting to. His view is if Council wants to wait on this fine. We still have things that we can resolve as a matter of contract, but he would certainly state to him this is a very sensible move. It's a good investment. It reflects another piece of a policy that we really have put together, have stitched together over time. Mayor Rinker has tried to be conscious of this. To be sure, the economics are not great for anyone. Mayfield Village is going to start feeling that pinch, maybe not as much as others are, but we are seeing it in the revenues. We have leveled off over the last two years. We don't know if Progressive is going to move this Spring. We don't know if they are going to move in five years or five months when it comes right down to it. What we have been trying to do really over the last 18-24 months is ratchet down bit by bit. So anytime something like this comes up and we