Dear Stay Inside the Fence Supporters:
On Thursday, June 5th, we delivered 2,069 referendum signatures from City of Middletown registered voters and filed them with the City of Middletown Finance Director. Within hours of us filing those petitions, there was “a lengthy news release jointly issued by the city and SunCoke late Thursday afternoon, June 5th.” The headline read in Friday’s paper “City to do over SunCoke rezoning.” We believe the petitions delivered to the City had a direct impact on their decision to re-enact the rezoning. Within one week, over 2,000 signatures were collected from all over Middletown. The response was overwhelmingly opposed to the rezoning of the land to industrial and subsequent plans to build the SunCoke plant on the land.
SITF Committee
Posted Wednesday, June 23, 2008
'Why so many unanswered questions?'
Thursday, June 26, 2008
On Thursday, June 5, the Stay Inside the Fence Committee delivered 2,069 Middletown voter signatures for a referendum petition drive to the city of Middletown to overturn the May 6 legislative decision to rezone the Martin farmland to industrial (use). The next day, The Journal reported that the city announced it would re-do the process and start over from the beginning, thereby avoiding the cost of a lawsuit battle pending in the courts on the same issue. Although the city stated that they did nothing wrong in the re-zoning process, they willingly decided to re-do it. When was the last time the city has re-done legislation immediately after it was passed?
So, if they truly had followed the proper legal process in the re-zoning of this land, why are they afraid to answer questions in court regarding it? Moreover, if it was truly such an "emergency" (the way in which it was passed originally), what makes it not an emergency now that they are willing to re-do the entire process? And lastly, did our submission of petitions a few hours before they made the announcement to re-do the process impact their decision?
Do they not want to run the risk of the people having their say about this critical rezoning? And why are they now mentioning amending the zoning code? Did the city know from the beginning that this coke plant didn't fit on that land to begin with? Do the elect few want to control the direction of the city and ignore the voice of the people?
Why are there so many unanswered questions? Keeping the legislation "on the books" undermines the true spirit of re-doing this legislation. It feels deceptive when they say they want to "re-do" the zoning, but are still keeping the original one "on the books."
Perhaps they forgot there is still a pending lawsuit to which they need to respond. We are still awaiting validation from the city and county Board of Elections as to if we received enough signatures to make it on the fall ballot. But one thing is clear — after circulating petitions and collecting more than 2,000 signatures in one week, it is clear that the people want to have a say in issues that affect their lives. As long as elected officials continue to represent only one segment of the community (or one business), our system has failed.
Lisa Frye
Middletown
Zoning do-over in coke plant draws praise
Some critics said not enough time was spent on decision involving land for cokemaking plant.
Saturday, June 07, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — The city's decision to re-enact the entire rezoning process for the 157-acre tract of land targeted for a proposed $340 million cokemaking and electric generation plant apparently pleased some opponents who said not enough time was spent discussing and reviewing the issue.
Shane Craycraft, administrator of Garden Manor Extended Care Inc., said he was "pleased that the city was going to redo the zoning code."
Extras
Garden Manor filed a lawsuit on May 13 in Butler County Common Pleas Court against the city as well as Middletown City Council and Middletown Planning Commission.
Among issues raised in its lawsuit, Garden Manor alleged the city failed to follow its own procedures when it rezoned the land to an industrial zoning classification to allow the plant to be constructed.
The health care facility, which is located inside the city limits, employs more than 400 and has 350 residents, according to Craycraft.
"I have to say that points of the lawsuit were valid because of the inappropriate procedures," he said. "Overall, we're happy because it gives the city and the community a chance to discuss the issues."
Craycraft said locating the proposed cokemaking and electric generation plant between Amanda Elementary School and Garden Manor "is still ludicrous."
Sara Mills, Middletown's assistant law director, said the emergency ordinance approved on May 6 "is still on the books," and Mills reiterated that the city acted properly in the rezoning of the property, but that it faster and cheaper re-enact the ordinance than to litigate the allegations in court.
She anticipates the current ordinance will remain in place the until council amends the zoning code, repeals the current ordinance and re-enacts the new ordinance.
Do-over 'a credit' to city, SunCoke
Opponents of a proposed cokemaking and electric generation plant said they were pleased with an effort by the city of Middletown and SunCoke Energy Inc. to restart the entire process to rezone 157 acres between Ohio 4 and Yankee Road.
Frank Schiavone, of 6978 Hamilton-Middletown Road, whose property is adjacent to where the proposed plant will be located, said Friday, June 6, he "was on top of the world for a number of reasons."
"It's a real credit to the city and SunCoke for taking the time to study the regional impact of the project and the people," he said. "It's a life-changing decision and it's a regional decision."
Schiavone and his wife, Joan, filed a lawsuit May 5 in Butler County Common Pleas Court against property owner Dr. Theodore Martin and Martin Meadows Limited Partnership, to block the sale to Tennesse-based SunCoke. The Schiavones claim in the civil suit that news of the project has devalued their property from $575,000 to $200,000.
A motion hearing has been set for July 18 before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth.
The zoning issue will go back to the city planning commission and then back to City Council.
Mark McCormick, SunCoke's general counsel, said his company contacted the city last week about re-enacting the ordinance City Council approved May 6 as an emergency measure. The company made a formal request this week, he said.
"We don't think the litigation has any merit or that the city erred in any way," he said. "This is the most expeditious way to address the issue and eliminate any potential uncertainty in the process of purchasing the land."
AK Steel Corp. has signed a 20-year agreement with SunCoke to be the exclusive customer for the new plant's coke and electricity. AK spokesman Alan McCoy said he thinks city officials understand the importance of the potential project to AK Steel and Middletown.
"We concur it appears to be the most expedient way to deal with minor procedural issues that have no bearing on the underlying zoning change," McCoy said.
Lisa Frye, a Niederlander Lane resident who opposes the plant to will be built near her home, said petitions with more than 2,000 signatures of Middletown residents were filed with the city late Thursday afternoon.
Sara Mills, Middletown's assistant law director, said the petition would be reviewed "in an appropriate manner at the appropriate time."
On Monday, the Monroe Board of Education will consider a resolution opposing the location of the proposed SunCoke plant.
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Garden Manor sues city over rezoning for coke plant
Retirement community claims Middletown failed to follow procedure in rezoning approval for site of proposed $340M coke plant.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
MIDDLETOWN — Garden Manor Retirement Village has filed a lawsuit against the city of Middletown, claiming City Council and the planning commission failed to follow proper procedure in approving the rezoning of 157 acres that would be the site of a new $340 million coke making and heat recovery plant.
The suit filed Tuesday, May 13, in Butler County Common Pleas Court seeks to restrain the city from further action related to the site.
Officials at Garden Manor said the city violated its own ordinances and charter in four ways: the planning commission approved the rezoning without a proper application for the zoning change; the planning director's report was biased and did not contain both advantages and disadvantages of the zoning change; the use of the Bake-Martin farm, just off Ohio 4, is not compatible with the existing lawful uses on contiguous property; and City Council had no adequate basis to pass the rezoning as an emergency measure.
"Before we have to make a decision that will directly impact our 400 employees and 350 residents, we must bring light to the blatant deficiencies in this process," said Shane Craycraft, administrator of Garden Manor.
City Law Director Les Landen declined comment Wednesday and said he had not yet seen or received the lawsuit.
Garden Manor, which celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2007, is located next to the site where Knoxville, Tenn.-based SunCoke Energy wants to build a new coke making and electric generation plant.
City Council unanimously approved, 6-0, an emergency measure on May 6 to rezone the land from low-density residential to industrial use.
A day before the rezoning vote, Garden Manor sent council members a letter threatening to move or close if the zoning change was OK'd.
"Those options are very real and they are not just inflated for the sake of discussion," Craycraft said. "We are just trying to make sure the city of Middletown does this right so that we can make a good business decision in the end."
A map of the rezoning area
We can do something
about this
By working together as neighbors who want what is best for Middletown and the entire region, we believe that we should have a broader community discussion about the rezoning, the choices that are available for SunCoke/AK Steel, the need to create and retain the jobs we have available and the need to strengthen our community's property values.
Please Contact Us to learn how to join this important public discussion. You can also contact Middletown City Council to air your concerns about the rezoning. Please go to Tell Council to learn more. There are solutions that will benefit Middletown, SunCoke and AK Steel. If you have already decided that you want to be a part of the solution, then please go to the Contact Us page and use the Comment section to let us know how you want to be involved.