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Mr. Tony Sapienza:
<br />Tony Sapienza, 25760 Butternut Ridge Road. I grew up in North Olmsted, when I was born here,
<br />there was no 1-90, there was no 480, there was no mall. We keep putting things in here. We call
<br />it progress, but where does progress end and stability begin? We take away everything. If you
<br />take away your historical district out of North Olmsted, what are we left with? Really, think
<br />about it. If we take it away, are we left with just banks, car lots? Is that what we want to be
<br />known for? Shopping, a mall? We don't want to be known for that. We want to have something
<br />that's desirable. A lot of us moved to North Olmsted and Butternut because it is desirable. But
<br />once you start peeling it apart like an onion, one layer at a time, where does it end? If we
<br />rezone Butternut Ridge and you build 45 houses on one side of the road, it's been rezoned.
<br />There's no stopping it. There's the other side of the road with nine acres. How many houses do
<br />we put in there? We can't stop it once it's rezoned. They say peak traffic is 30 cars. I don't
<br />believe that. They don't account for landscapers, carpenters, trash removal. They don't account
<br />for any of that. And then you go across the street, they say, what are they going to say there,
<br />that it's only 60? 60 more cars peak? You can't get out of your driveway now on Butternut, and
<br />I know it's not all Butternut traffic, it comes from a lot of places. And I'm not against building.
<br />But to take your historical district and to systematically disassemble it, it's just wrong. It's crazy.
<br />It's crazy. It separates our city from a lot of cities out there, Fairview Park, anything like that.
<br />What are we going to just be known for, just houses, restaurants, banks? We got to keep
<br />something. We got to keep the metro park, our area down there at Frostville. We got to keep
<br />Butternut Ridge. We got to keep what we have, because once it's gone, it doesn't come back.
<br />Then you think people are going to want to move into a city, that there's really nothing there
<br />for them besides shopping? No. No, they're not. We need to keep something that brings charm
<br />to the city, something where people could drive down the road and go, look at these nice
<br />houses. Look at how they kept this street. Look at how they kept this section of North Olmsted.
<br />That's what we need to do. This talk about rezoning is absolutely nuts. We do not need to
<br />destroy our historical center district. We just don't need to do it. I mean, is there anybody here
<br />for developing North Olmsted? Anybody? No. Is there anybody here for strongly opposing this?
<br />We went down the street, we collected signatures, we passed out signs. Not one person, not
<br />one person said, I don't want that, I'm for this. Everybody, and let me tell you, a lot of people
<br />don't know about this. This is just starting to spread to other streets. It's starting to spread to
<br />other cities. People want to protect our historical district. If you don't, like Bob says, it's just
<br />another generic city. Where do you stop? 45 houses on one side of the road? 60, 80 houses on
<br />the other side of the road? What other part of Butternut Ridge can we grab? And then you
<br />widen the road? And I heard we have no plans of widening the road, no plans of putting in
<br />street lights, traffic lights, I don't believe that. I believe that down the line they will widen the
<br />road and stuff. And when we say, well, we were told that they wouldn't do that, they'll say that
<br />was the last administration, that wasn't us, we didn't tell you that.
<br />Council President Brossard:
<br />Mr. Sapienza, that's five minutes.
<br />11-05-25 Council Meeting Minutes rage 8
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