Galion City considers tattoos, ramps

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

On Dec. 11, Galion City Coun­cil held the sec­ond read­ings for Ord. 2012–92 and Ord. 2012–93. Both amended the Plan­ning and Zon­ing Code to include tat­too and body pierc­ing ser­vices, and res­i­den­tial hand­i­capped ramps, respectively.

Ord. 2012–92 was dis­cussed for about 30 min­utes by Coun­cil. It amends sec­tion 1149.03 by adding tat­too and body pierc­ing ser­vices as a con­di­tional use item in the Gen­eral Com­mer­cial (GC) Dis­trict. The exact word­ing in the leg­is­la­tion was: “(g) Tat­too and body pierc­ing ser­vices (exclud­ing ears) sub­ject to the require­ments of Chap­ter 1183 of the Ordinance.”

City Build­ing Inspec­tor Matt Ross explained that such estab­lish­ments are cur­rently allowed to set up in the city. The­o­ret­i­cally, they are treated as a con­di­tional use and the Plan­ning and Zon­ing Com­mis­sion gives approval, but tat­too and body pierc­ing does not meet any cri­te­ria for con­di­tional use.

The leg­is­la­tion would enact pol­icy on where and in what capac­ity an estab­lish­ment could locate. Accord­ing to Chap­ter 1183, if such a busi­ness wanted to open in Galion, it could not locate within 1,500 feet of any res­i­dence or dis­trict where res­i­dences are a per­mit­ted use; school, library or teach­ing facil­ity attended by per­sons under 18 years of age; a park or recre­ational facil­ity attended by per­sons under 18 years of age; or a church, syn­a­gogue, or per­ma­nently estab­lished place of reli­gious ser­vices attended by per­sons under 18 years of age.

(There seemed to be some con­fu­sion amongst some cit­i­zens because of the men­tion of adult enter­tain­ment facil­i­ties dur­ing the dis­cus­sion. 1183 was orig­i­nally set up as pro­vi­sions for adult enter­tain­ment facil­i­ties to limit where they could oper­ate. Tat­too and body pierc­ing estab­lish­ments were sim­ply being sub­jected to the same provisions.)

Coun­cil mem­ber Cathy George com­mented that the require­ment was intended to pro­tect the places where that type of busi­ness should not go.

Coun­cil mem­ber Tom Fell­ner, who is also chair­man of the Plan­ning and Zon­ing Com­mit­tee, said that, although the leg­is­la­tion was lim­it­ing where the busi­ness could locate, it would not hin­der it from open­ing. Accord­ing to him, it would actu­ally make the zon­ing process eas­ier for the busi­ness than what is cur­rently allowed. As dis­cus­sion con­tin­ued, Fell­ner dis­played a tat­too on his right shoulder.

Ross called the leg­is­la­tion a “con­ser­v­a­tive approach” and rec­om­mended that, if the com­mu­nity was against it, that the Chap­ter 1183 require­ment should be removed.

Cit­i­zen Kate Strick­ler asked Coun­cil to remove the last sen­tence of the amend­ment because it lim­its busi­nesses from opening.

The Plan­ning and Zon­ing Com­mis­sion pre­vi­ously sent its rec­om­men­da­tion to Coun­cil to include the require­ment. Bob Cerar, chair­man of the Com­mis­sion, empha­sized that the Com­mis­sion was NOT biased against tat­too par­lors. He explained that the rea­son­ing for the rec­om­men­da­tion was because in 2011, when a par­tic­u­lar busi­ness filed for zon­ing, some of the art­work it wanted to dis­play on the store­front win­dows was “pornographic.”

Even­tu­ally George called for a vote on the leg­is­la­tion. Coun­cil passed the ordi­nance, with the 1183 restric­tion, unanimously.

For Ord. 2012–93, some restric­tions on set­backs and lot cov­er­age for res­i­den­tial hand­i­cap ramps were removed. Ross said he hopes the changes will make it eas­ier for peo­ple to build ramps and expe­dite the per­mit process.

It passed unan­i­mously. Because they were passed as sec­ond read­ings, both ordi­nances will go into effect in 30 days.

A pub­lic hear­ing was held that evening regard­ing the rezon­ing of three lots on Port­land Way North, across from the Carter Drive intersection.

None of the prop­erty own­ers were present, but the cit­i­zen who filed the peti­tion was. He was the only per­son to speak dur­ing the hear­ing and encour­aged Coun­cil to vote in favor of the rezon­ing leg­is­la­tion, which was on the table later in the meeting.

Ord. 2012–97 was the rezon­ing leg­is­la­tion, which changed the clas­si­fi­ca­tion from Res­i­den­tial Mul­ti­ple Fam­ily to Res­i­den­tial Office. Fell­ner explained that there is a busi­ness inter­ested in open­ing an office at one of the res­i­dences there.

All three lots needed to be rezoned because the orig­i­nal zon­ing has them in the same dis­trict, but the home­own­ers were con­tacted about the change. Fell­ner noted that it opens, not lim­its, the options of what the homes can be used for. The leg­is­la­tion passed.

Res. 2012–17 was an end of the year trans­fer of $5,000 in the Stormwa­ter Fund to some accounts within the fund.

Res. 2012–18 reap­pointed Joe Kleinknecht as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Craw­ford County Regional Plan­ning Com­mis­sion. Res. 2012–19 appointed Brian Treisch and Phil Fox to Design Review Dis­trict 1 (Uptowne). Res. 2012–20 reap­pointed Sharon Barnes to Design Review Dis­trict 1, and Rick Mad­dox and Gary Rid­dle to Dis­trict 2 (His­toric West Main). Res. 2012–21 reap­pointed Wendy Kerr to the Galion Board of Health.

In com­mit­tee updates, Finance Com­mit­tee Chair Roberta Wade said she still has ques­tions regard­ing the billing from Amer­i­can Munic­i­pal Power, which she said is com­pli­cated. After express­ing her inter­est in con­tact­ing AMP so that a rep­re­sen­ta­tive can speak to the com­mit­tee and address ques­tions, other Coun­cil mem­bers agreed. Wade said she would con­tact the com­pany to set some­thing up.

The Laws and Ordi­nances Com­mit­tee was sched­uled to have a meet­ing imme­di­ately fol­low­ing the Coun­cil meet­ing in order to con­tinue dis­cus­sion about inter­net cafe reg­u­la­tions. How­ever, Fell­ner requested that it be can­celled, to await the out­come of related state leg­is­la­tion. Other com­mit­tee mem­bers agreed.

For Plan­ning, Zon­ing and Util­i­ties, Fell­ner said there are two rezon­ing requests it needs to dis­cuss, but fur­ther infor­ma­tion is needed first. He also sched­uled a pub­lic hear­ing for Jan. 22, dur­ing that evening’s Coun­cil meet­ing. The committee’s next meet­ing is Dec. 18 at 6:15 p.m.

Parks and Recre­ation Com­mit­tee Chair Ken Bod­kins said there was a meet­ing that day. Cit­i­zens are con­cerned about reserv­ing base­ball fields for 2013, so Bod­kins instructed any­one who wants to use any of the fields in Galion to send letters/call him, Cathy George or Paul Flan­nery indi­cat­ing which field and when it will be needed, prefer­ably by the end of January.

“We don’t want to shut any­one out this year,” Bod­kins said. “We need to share the fields.”

Coun­cil Clerk Michelle Tal­bott then read a let­ter from Colum­bia Gas of Ohio, dated Nov. 30. The let­ter read: “In 2012, Colum­bia Gas of Ohio has con­tin­ued to invest in infra­struc­ture replace­ment pro­grams that ben­e­fit both our cus­tomers and your com­mu­nity. Also this year, Colum­bia has con­tin­ued to make sub­stan­tial invest­ments in energy-efficiency pro­grams that help our res­i­den­tial cus­tomers save money on their energy bills.”

The let­ter went on to indi­cate that in Feb­ru­ary of 2013, the com­pany will apply through the Pub­lic Util­i­ties Com­mis­sion of Ohio “to set rates for its Infra­struc­ture Replace­ment Pro­gram Rider (Rider IRP) and the Demand Side Man­age­ment Rider (Rider DSM).” This will result in an increase in res­i­den­tial bills of $1.21 per month for the Rider IRP and 21.5 cents for Rider DSM.

In his com­ments, City Man­ager Gene Toy reminded every­one that the next City Coun­cil meet­ing was bumped up to Dec. 18 because of the hol­i­days. He also announced that Fire Chief Phil Jack­son was in Penn­syl­va­nia that evening to pick up the city’s new fire truck that was recently purchased.

Dur­ing a recent Ohio Pub­lic Works Com­mis­sion meet­ing, he received noticed that Galion will received about $1.17 mil­lion for three upcom­ing projects.

In cit­i­zen com­ments, Paula Durbin asked: “Are you [Coun­cil] going to sit down and decide salaries for the new statu­tory gov­ern­ment or are you going to put it in com­mit­tee? What is you sta­tus on that at this point in time?”

Durbin was refer­ring to the posi­tions for the change in gov­ern­ment that Galion vot­ers passed in Novem­ber. As of right now, it goes into effect June 1, 2013 fol­low­ing the May pri­mary election.

Wade felt the issue should be put into a com­mit­tee. Fell­ner agreed, say­ing the com­mit­tee should include com­mu­nity mem­bers as well. There was then a con­cen­sus that Coun­cil would make an offi­cial deci­sion on how to pro­ceed dur­ing the next meeting.

Kit Walder also spoke. He was opposed to the pro­posed rezon­ing of the for­mer high school prop­erty, say­ing it is “not the best use of that area.” Walder said it could lead to decreased prop­erty val­ues, an increase in noise and traf­fic and added stress to pub­lic util­i­ties. He asked Coun­cil to take that into con­sid­er­a­tion before mak­ing any decisions.

Galion City Council’s next meet­ing is Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. at the Munic­i­pal Building.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Dec 18 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.