Zoning discusses ramps

By Matt Echelberry

Inquirer Reporter

Also dur­ing the Plan­ning and Zon­ing Commission’s Dec. 11 meet­ing, five mem­bers of Galion Rotary Club were present to dis­cuss recent prob­lems it has encoun­tered with the city. The charges and over­sight required by the Zon­ing Code are inter­fer­ing with the time con­straints for con­struc­tion of the ramps.

Galion Rotary has been build­ing hand­i­cap ramps for dis­abled, impov­er­ished peo­ple since 1926. (In recent years it has part­nered with the Craw­ford County Crip­pled Children’s Soci­ety for the ini­tia­tive.) The group now faces per­mit fees charged by the city and over­sight they call “impractical.”

Rotar­ian Den­nis Crim said they are not opposed to inspec­tions, but Rotary does not want to pass the fees onto the peo­ple they serve because most of them have very lim­ited income or face stag­ger­ing med­ical bills.

He fur­ther added that one ramp was redesigned by city recently and the spec­i­fi­ca­tions for the revised ver­sion would have ended the ramp in the street. The club now needs to sub­mit a draw­ing before they start, which Crim said is dif­fi­cult to do because they try to deliver ramps as quickly as pos­si­ble and some­times the details on set­back dis­tance for a par­tic­u­lar project are not known until the project begins.

Com­mis­sioner Bob Cerar responded that the city’s Build­ing and Zon­ing Depart­ment is con­cerned with safety, which is the rea­son for over­sight in gen­eral. He advised that the club does need some kind of a plan when it wants to install a ramp.

Build­ing Inspec­tor Matt Ross explained that once a plan is drawn, it is NOT set in stone. His depart­ment works with builders through changes that occur through­out a project, which he said hap­pens all the time. He empha­sized that a plan needs to be approved, but it can be changed later.

Crim argued that the ramps are free float­ing with no posts in the ground. Also, through­out the suc­cess­ful decades of ramp build­ing, vol­un­teers are care­ful to avoid the street, neigh­bor­ing houses, water lines, hydrants, elec­tric poles, etc.

“These are tem­po­rary struc­tures. Why can’t they be exempt from these set­backs? Relieves some of the pres­sure on Matt [Ross] and helps the peo­ple in need,” Rotar­ian Dave Dayne commented.

The Com­mis­sion did empathize with the Rotary’s efforts and the time con­straints of its projects. Sev­eral Com­mis­sion­ers expressed a desire to help. “We des­per­ately want to work with any­body who’s putting stuff like this together. We will work on stream­lin­ing the ordi­nance,” Cerar stated.

Ross added that he under­stands the dilemma and the city is try­ing to expe­dite the process the appli­ca­tion process.

As far as fees are con­cerned, Cerar noted that is a City Coun­cil issue. He added: “Matt [Ross] has been the one who has been try­ing to lower the costs of these kinds of things and mak­ing it so you can build ramps closer to setbacks…but he must also fol­low the law.”

Over­sight of hand­i­cap ramps will be dis­cussed fur­ther at the Commission’s Jan­u­ary meeting.

In another item of busi­ness, Avita Health Sys­tems recently requested a rezon­ing of the Health Ser­vices Dis­trict, in the area where Galion Com­mu­nity Hos­pi­tal is located. A pub­lic hear­ing regard­ing the rezon­ing was held that evening.

Dan Seckel, an archi­tect rep­re­sent­ing Avita, com­mented that the pri­mary rea­son for the request was the hos­pi­tal being approached about start­ing a dial­y­sis clinic. The rezon­ing, which would incor­po­rate more land along the Olen­tangy River, could also poten­tially be used to cre­ate more doc­tors’ offices and an oncol­ogy center.

No one from the audi­ence spoke dur­ing the hear­ing. After a brief dis­cus­sion, Com­mis­sioner Chuck Miller moved to approve the request and the motion passed. The Commission’s rec­om­men­da­tion will go to the Plan­ning, Zon­ing and Util­i­ties Com­mit­tee, fol­lowed by two pub­lic hear­ings before being pre­sented to City Coun­cil for final approval.

Next, there was a request from Charles Smith to open a recy­cling cen­ter in Galion, on a prop­erty located on State Route 309 and Charles Street, where he has an agree­ment with the cur­rent landowner to pur­chase said land if the Com­mis­sion approved his request. The request was for the full lot, but Smith noted he does not intend to use all of it. He also had a site plan to present to the Commission.

Cur­rently, Smith oper­ates a recy­cling cen­ter in Mor­row County. He said he is com­pli­ant with EPA reg­u­la­tions and the new cen­ter he intends to open in Galion would not be a sal­vage yard. It would accept fer­ous and non-ferous mate­r­ial, which the busi­ness would cut and bale. He said noth­ing would be vis­i­ble from the road.

Build­ing Inspec­tor Matt Ross had no con­cerns. After some ques­tions, the Com­mis­sion approved the request.

Posted by Matt Echelberry on Dec 22 2012. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.