05/19/2009 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 5/19/2009 ~~~ Cuyahoga County Library representatives will reconsider other alternatives to alleviate the problem: The committee voted 3-0 to hold the item in committee so that the County Library could respond. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION 1) Dennis Lambert, 25057 Carey Lane, for years has been talking about the types of businesses that were locating into the city. Doesn't want to seem anti-car lot but knows it is something we shouldn't have in this community. Car lots have been springing up and encroaching down into the residential areas for years. They are basically five acres of pavement with minimal property tax and employment tax. They are a drain on a community where land is a resource and the tax revenue not only supports the city but also the schools. If a dealerships close, the buildings will get ugly. For the last couple of years he has been talking about the need for special zoning for outdoor retail sales. That would be sales where the majority of the inventory sits outside and restricting how many of those kinds of things there are, whether they be landscaping items like brick, dirt, slag or automobiles, and placing restrictions within how many miles of each other the buildings can be located. Those ideas have fallen on deaf ears. The price is going to be paid very shortly. It is sad because this community really needs some good resources in it, not car lots. It needs large buildings and major corporations that are willing to pay taxes and grow here. 2) Don Pangrac, 23470 Sharon Drive, received his water bill yesterday and did not understand how some of the numbers were computed. He called the water department and the person he spoke to could not explain all of the charges. They eventually came to common ground on the water charge of $18.54. They are going to call him back on the $48.15 sewer charge. He is bringing this up because we are being charged $18.54 for the first thousand cubic feet of water. The second thousand cubic feet costs $39.55, which is a 213% increase in the rate. That is obscene. They should be called to task for this and Council ought to take a position with the city of Cleveland Water Department. They need to bring their charges more in line with what's actually going on in the real world. Nobody is going to convince him that it takes a 213% increase in expenses to pump the second thousand cubic feet of water into this community. Councilman Gareau noted it is interesting to see the city of Cleveland complain about the draw of business and the flight of residents from Cleveland to the surrounding suburbs and even further beyond. Then we begin to hear the drum of regionalism from the city of Cleveland. They talk about regionalism, and regionalism works well for Cleveland when Cleveland benefits from something such as sharing tax revenues from cities that benefit from a relocating business. Yet in the one business that they are in regionally, water business, they have no trouble at all just pounding the suburbs with an inflated rate. If they are going to ever reach a point where there can be a legitimate dialogue on the discussion of regionalism, they actually need to consider how they deal with the suburbs and the surrounding areas before asking for the suburbs and surrounding areas to give something back. 9