Pine Trails reservation strip to remain intact, for now
by Judy Stringer
Dec. 3 city council meeting
Hudson City Council elected not to lift city control of a reservation strip within the Pine Trails subdivision by a 6-1 vote.
Resident Eric Nye had requested release of the reservation strip, which sits across the street from his Pine Circle home. The strip was initially reserved for an extension of that subdivision.
In November, Nye told council he bought the undeveloped portion to keep headlights from vehicular traffic on the proposed Pine Trails Lane from shining in his front window. He has since developed a plan to convert the 18-acre property into a grape and apple orchard named Nicole’s Vineyard. He needs the reservation strip removed to access his portion of the property, Nye said.
In those Nov. 19 comments and in a letter to council, Nye also addressed concerns about the removal of trees, stating that only 3-5 acres would be cleared for plantings.
At the Dec. 3 vote, however, council members questioned “a blanket release” of the reservation strip without a specific development plan attached.
“I do not question Mr. Nye’s interest in being a good neighbor or being a good business owner,” said councilor Mike Bird. “My concern is that if we don’t have something more, and if there’s a transfer of ownership, then there could be all sorts of confusion as to what could be done with that property.”
As part of its consent agenda, council unanimously approved three resolutions related to liquor licenses. The city will not request a hearing at the Ohio Division of Liquor Control regarding new alcohol sales permit applications for Regal Cinemas and NC Soccer Club or a permit transfer to the new owner of the Sunoco service station on Darrow Road.
Councilor Skylar Sutton requested that the consent item related to a three-month extension of the city’s Dec. 12, 2023, moratorium on applications for marijuana-related activities be pulled for a separate vote. During a Nov. 12 meeting, councilor Chris Banweg said that while 51.8% of residents voted in favor of state legislation legalizing marijuana, he’d like to get public feedback on whether that means they support a dispensary in the city – a sentiment echoed by other council members.
Earlier this year, council passed an ordinance permitting recreational marijuana facilities – as well as tattoo parlors and vape shops – but only in Zoning District 9, also known as the Darrowville Commercial Corridor in the south end of Hudson. The moratorium, however, supersedes that allowance.
“We found a home for it in our zoning code,” Sutton argued on Dec. 3. “I think it’s time to just move this along.”
He and councilor Nicole Kowalski voted against the three-month moratorium extension, which ultimately passed by a 5-2 vote.
Infrastructure legislation
Council heard the first reading of an ordinance, sponsored by Banweg, that would direct city council to consider spending at least 50% of its excess general fund balance on infrastructure.
Kowalski expressed her concern, at the Nov. 26 workshop, that the legislation would “strong arm” future councils into spending half of the annual overage on infrastructure when other needs might be more pressing.
Banweg said the ordinance would only mandate the discussion and make the discussion “a public event.”
“When you have an overage, it gets fought over for pet projects, and it gets divvied up really quickly, which is counter to the idea of investing it in infrastructure … [where] we’d all have to agree on bigger ticket items, which is harder to do,” Banweg said on Nov. 26.
President Chris Foster added that in his first three years on council, “we almost never had this discussion.”
Earlier in that same conversation Foster said if infrastructure had been a priority discussion point over the last 20 years, “we’d be in a different position today.” ∞