WASHINGTON COURT HOUSE, Ohio — The Washington C.H. City Council held a special meeting at 2 p.m Thursday for the purpose of discussing legal matters regarding Farmington Lane.
The meeting was called to order and the council chairman, Dale Lynch, asked city attorney Mark Pitstick to speak to council regarding the legal matter before them.
Pitstick said that he had been in consultation with a lawyer who represents the city in various legal matters. It was determined that if council acted on any request concerning the Farmington Lane development project, it would be a violation of law regarding the “regulatory taking of property,” and there are regulatory and federal rights involved. There would be a great liability to the city if council took any action on this matter and a lawsuit was filed in the future.
Pitstick said that the city has a planning board and zoning board to deal with development projects and it would be best to let those boards deal with their legal responsibility. Lawsuits would be long, costly, and time consuming.
City Manager Joe Denen gave a brief explanation of the situation at hand in reply to a question by councilman Jim Blair and said that, “the property was zoned commercial 24 years ago and when the subdivision of Quail Run was started, the residents were concerned about a commercial property being located in a residential area. RC Rivers owned the property at that time and requested the zoning be changed to R3, multi-family usage.”
Denen said at that time all the residents who had homes at the inception of Quail Run were in agreement for this zoning change. The zoning board then received and approved the request in 2000.
Subsequently, Rivers sold the property to JLB1 Properties as an R3 zoning designation in good faith for development. The first plat submitted to the planning commission was rejected due to the set-back regulations in the city. JLB1 then changed their development plan and submitted a new plat to the planning commission for consideration with the proper 80 foot set-back requirement being met.
The planning commission meets Tuesday, Sept. 24 to consider that new plat.
The council adjourned without taking any action, pursuant to legal advice of counsel.
