04/20/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Regular Council Meeting Minutes 4-20-09 Page' 10 Ordinance 2008-49. That's the one that is to authorize and direct the Mayor to negotiate an oil and gas lease at the 10-acre parcel at Bonnieview and Beech Hill. It's been described to them on a number of occasions in meetings here and elsewhere that what the Village is contemplating is a two-step process, the first being that the Mayor would be authorized to negotiate. The second, it would come back to Council for further deliberation and approval. Mr. Coughlin was asked to take a look at these proposed docutnents including the lease, the form of lease from Seagull that's attached to the proposed ordinance and he saw nowhere in there any express language that describes that two-part step. It is currently absent from the lease. It makes no reference to the power of Council in the proposed lease. It's somewhat unclear in the proposed ordinance. It says there will be due diligence. It says, for example, the Village's Planning Commission will weigh in, but it says nothing about Council approval. So, we would like your feedback on that inasmuch as that needs to be explicit. That's our first question and he thinks it needs to be explicit in the lease as well if this is the way we are going to go. The second item was brought to their attention from their neighbors in Highland Heights and we would like your feedback on this as well and that is in the last General Election pursuant to citizen petition, the City of Highland Heights enacted an amendment to its Charter. That amendment prohibits that City from negotiating any kind of lease of publicly-held properties, held by the City, property held by the City, without the vote of the voters, of the residents, and so that was basically as best as we understand it, taking the authority from the administration and Council there and giving it directly to the voters and they did that through their own petition process. We would like to know what your feedback is on that because that might be a way to address this in a long-term fashion. It was a successful Charter amendment and that is now the rule in Highland Heights. It seems to be, it may not be a bad idea here. With that, Mr. Coughlin thanked Council. Council President Buckholtz thanked Mr. Coughlin. Linda Butler 817 Hanover Some time during the Spring, Council will vote on whether or not to allow the Mayor to negotiate with Seagull Development Corporation. The Hanover Woods neighborhood association opposes this direction for five reasons. Before she goes into the reasons, she wants to show you some property on Ridgeway that Seagull recently, last sununer, put in a well. This is the view on Ridgeway (power point slide) taken this morning in the rain. You can see, she apologizes, it's Ridgebury, you can see the house and the garage and behind the garage is another large structure which you will be seeing soon. To the upper left, you can see the neighbor's property which is a woodland lot with leaves, trees, and a lot of nature. To the right, you can see what's happened to the property that's been drilled. The drilling was done in the sununer. There may have been time to do some mitigation on that backyard before fa11 set in, but it wasn't done. She is sure that some grass will be planted on that property, but the