City begins overhaul of planning, zoning codes

Avon Lake City Council discussed pending changes to the city’s planning/zoning codes and comprehensive land use plan Jan. 16.

Public Works Director Joe Reitz reported to Council after conducting interviews with four firms that two firms were selected to conduct a complete overhaul of planning/zoning codes and the land use plan.

The process is expected to take 12 to 18 months and would be the first update since 1995.

Law Director Abe Lieberman agreed while many of the sections have worked well for the city, the code in its entirety is outdated and no longer fits together with Avon Lake’s present needs.

“There’s a lot of problems with the way the code currently exists that we encounter on a day-to-day basis in terms of organization, in terms of substance, and it just seemed we needed a whole new approach,” Lieberman said.

“And quite frankly, it’s much easier to do it that way than to try to fit a square peg into a round hole. It’s time.”

Mayor Greg Zilka echoed Lieberman, saying times have changed since the 1990s in designing and writing codes, which makes sense for Avon Lake for how land is used.

“It’s was suggested that by starting over, it would be like building a house from scratch rather than taking an old house and remodeling the kitchen and the bathrooms,” Zilka said. “You just get a better product, a more streamlined and updated product without as much effort.

“Because when you try to replace bits and pieces, you have a lot of work to do that you don’t anticipate.”

The city has set aside $100,000 for 2018 and will carry over into 2019 depending on the final cost of the project, he said.

The community may participate in the review process in a passive way with the city engaging the public from time to time, but made it clear the experts will be taking the lead in writing the code, officials said.

Newly elected Council-atLarge member and former mayor K.C. Zuber expressed a number of concerns about the need for a total re-write in addition to the costs involved.

Zuber said public input would be critical as the process unfolds.

“I guess my concern is you have a land use plan that was written and calls for an update every five years,” he said. “Why aren’t we just doing a five-year update on it?

“We can have it be a little bit more detailed, but you have a town that is 85, 90 percent built and now you’re going to re-write the whole comprehensive plan when there’s hardly any land left to develop.”

In response, Zilka stressed all four firms interviewed by the city strongly indicated the land use plan currently in effect does not account for development around Interstate 90.

“Close your eyes and imagine what was along I-90 in 1990 and 1995,” Zilka said. “Virtually nothing.

“The amount of businesszoned areas that we have is well beyond what will work. It just won’t work anymore and we have to reassess this.”