989 Western Avenue: Walgreens or Greenspace?
"Sound Planning and the Enforcement of the Chillicothe Zoning Code"
Presentation to the City Council Legislative Special Session October 13th new 10/15/04

• In the early 1970s, the City of Chillicothe retained the services of the prestigious land use-planning firm of Hurley, Schnaufer & Associates (now Community Development Consultants, Inc.) to develop a comprehensive Master Plan for the entire community.


• This plan was completed in 1974 and is called The Chillicothe Land Use, Thoroughfare and Parks Plan. An important part of the implementation process for this plan is our current zoning code, also written by Hurley, Schnaufer & Associates.


• The firm's senior principal, Edward R. Hurley, AICP, personally oversaw all aspects of Chillicothe's Master Plan development, including the zoning code.


• Ed Hurley spent a great amount of time reviewing past planning studies, including the 1940's study completed by Vladislaus Sigo & Associates. Sigo was well known for his great appreciation of a community's heritage and the importance of green space and aesthetics in creating a balanced community.


• Ed Hurley incorporated the best of Sigo's visions for Chillicothe into his Land Use, Thoroughfare and Parks Plan, or at least as much as it made sense to incorporate, because some of Sigo's recommendations applied to parts of the city that had been altered or destroyed by the early 1970's.

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• Ed Hurley's Land Use, Thoroughfare and Parks Plan incorporates two overriding planning principles for Chillicothe:


1. The community should retain, protect and enhance all elements of its physical makeup that contribute to the city's unique quality of life, including its historic town core, established neighborhoods, its parks, its boulevards and tree lined streets.


2. The community should provide for balanced new growth that would be harmonious, complimentary and respectful to the community's protected attributes.


• A good Master Plan and its supporting Zoning Code allows for reasonable, compatible change.


• A good Master Plan and its supporting Zoning Code may be updated to reflect changes in a community's outward growth pattern, annexations, and certain other considerations, but a good Master Plan does not drastically change unless it was ill conceived to begin with.


• A good Master Plan and its supporting Zoning Code provides for orderly change, where change is needed, and for no change, where the established character is a major element in the Community's quality of life.


• The great cities and towns in America are the ones that have allowed the least amount of change in their Master Plans.


• The 1974 Land Use, Thoroughfare and Parks Plan clearly defined the area on Western Avenue, between University Drive and Plyley's Lane, as an area that significantly contributed to the overall community's quality of life, and zoned (protected) this area accordingly.


• The Master Plan and its supporting Zoning Code allowed for reasonable, harmonious and balanced future growth in the area, growth that would retain the area's essential green character.


• For example, although to this day several properties remain single-family residences on large tracts of land, the owners have the ability to develop and make a profit by virtue of a zoning classification that is more liberal than its actual current use. (For example, from a de facto R-1 category to R-4.)


• The overall land-use development process on Western Avenue, from Woodbridge Avenue to Brewer Heights, has respected the 1974 Master Plan.


• The only exception, and a minor one, is a variance for a parking lot at Blockbuster Video which was already zoned for commercial use in the Master Plan.


• This minor variation from the Master Plan and Zoning Code is of no significance to the argument that this area is "going commercial" because, in fact, it is not, unless the current proposal is regrettably approved by City Council in contradiction of the Chillicothe Land Use, Thoroughfare and Parks Plan and our zoning code.


• The following slides document the existing attractions of the area between University Drive and Plyley's Lane, and testify to the wisdom of not changing the existing Master Plan OR the Zoning Code as it pertains to this issue, for the good of the entire community.



< PHOTOGRAPHS AND NOTES >

• If you are thinking about the good of the community with respect to this issue, your choices as members of City Council are:


1. Vote against this proposal


2. Give yourselves and the community much more time to study this proposal and allow planning and technical experts the opportunity to aid you in your decision. The future of Chillicothe, including our ability to attract larger businesses and industry with their higher paying jobs, is in your hands.


• Quality of life matters to business and industry.


• "Anywhere, USA" does not.

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