The community activist group Bedford Watch will be seeking referendum on the recent rezoning approval of the Whitman land at the intersection of Sterns and Lewis. A referendum is a direct vote, done during a special election, by the entire community that will either affirm the township board’s decision on the rezoning or overturn it. From the Bedford Watch website:

After meeting with our legal team, we have been informed that the only way to stop a rezoning that a township board approves is with a referendum. On December 2, 2008, the majority of the Bedford Township Board members approved 5 of the 6 Whitman Ford parcels up for rezoning.

I have spoken with the township and ascertained that a special election/referendum will cost the township an additional $8-9,000 and that Bedford Watch has been given all the information on how to appropriately seek the referendum. Should a special election be necessary the township will place the referendum vote in with another election such as a school election to keep added costs down.

One township official I spoke to is pleased at the possibility of referendum as it puts the vote in the hands of the community and would essentially (in my own words) seal the deal.

One question I did not ask and I wish I would have but it just came to me right now is if there is a referendum vote will the voters of the community be asked to affirm or overturn each parcel or the property as a whole? It’d be interesting to see if the same five parcels were affirmed and the decision on parcel six be overturned and therefore rezoned C-2. My assumption is that the referendum vote would simply ask to affirm or deny the decision made by the board.

And slightly unrelated to this I wanted to clear up something that Mr. Jim Goebel made reference to during the meeting in regards to low income senior housing. I think the words low income are intended to frighten people or just have that negative stigma attached to it. For a perfectly great example of low income senior housing already in our township take a look at Ivor Lindsay on Lewis Ave in Temperance. The facility is kept up nicely, the grounds are taken care of, and the residents are genuinely nice people from what I am told. Low income senior housing should it be placed on the rezoned land at Sterns and Lewis should be of no concern to anyone in this community as we’ve seen little to no issue from existing low income senior housing already established here.

This past Tuesday’s vote was very likely one of the most watched votes in the history of our fair township. It seems everyone has an opinion on the rezoning of the land owned by the Whitman family at the intersection of Sterns and Lewis. Not surprising to anyone is the fact that I have many opinions to share; opinions not just over the rezoning but also of some individuals.

The vote on the rezoning went as I had thought it would with the approval of five of the six parcels; the one parcel, parcel number six, that was denied rezoning was the same parcel that was not recommended by our township planning commission for rezoning. This is the parcel that sat nearly dead center of the piece of land in question and was about 8 acres in size. Whitman was requesting the zoning be changed from R2-A single-family residential to C-2 commerical. The concern of the board was that completely rezoning this parcel would not allow for a sufficient buffer for the homes adjacent to the west side of the property from the potential commercial land use to the east side of this property.

I’m not entirely sold on that particular theory in that a lot of the ‘pollutions’ of commercial zoning can be hashed out in site plan approvals. A simple look at the approval process for Bedford’s largest commercial development at this time, Kroger, shows that the developers and representatives of Kroger were more than accomodating with the type of lighting installed, delivery times, where docking stations would be located, and the even moved where a dumpster was proposed to be placed to eliminate the threat of disturbing neighbors with early morning trash pickup. Living close to the Kroger development I have spent some time monitoring the lighting issues, the truck issues, the roads issues, etc. I don’t see the issue with this particular commercial neighbor.

Yes, I understand had the rezoning of that eight acres gone through one would be looking at a considerably larger commercial development. However, I am not convinced that size and scope automatically equate to bad commercial neighbor.

Honestly, in this man’s opinion, the biggest issue with the vote and the reason I feel that those eight acres were honestly turned down was due to the possible sale of the land to one Wal Mart. The big bad ,local business destroying, will leave empty boxes allover our township Wal Mart. Again, a notion I do not completely agree with.

Bedford Watch, a local ‘community activist’ group was adamant against this rezoning and their focal point was that if the land is rezoned then it will be sold with absolute certainty to Wal Mart. Don’t believe me? Check out their website where the group is seemingly obsessed with Wal Mart and it’s hell bent nature of destroying small towns. Wal Mart would destroy our roads, put a further pinch on our police and fire protection, would put 100 local businesses out of work, and would quash commercial development throughout the township.

Remember those old T-shirts that said Fear This? I was fully expecting to see a mock shirt of these old T-shirts from Bedford Watch - Wal Mart: Fear It! I’m not trying to be crass as that is an honest opinion. The Bedford Watch group it seemed purposely tried to play on people’s fears and to their heart strings; they were selling people on the fact that because Jon Whitman had a deal with Wal Mart before that he did now.

Bedford Watch said our roads would deteriorate and that an additional 76,000 cars per day would drive on Sterns and Lewis. How did they arrive at this figure? Is it because it’s a national average and we’ll assume that national averages equate to the consumers in this area? I do not know the answer but 76,000 additional vehicles is an awful lot of vehicles and a figure I find to be highly unlikely.

I agree with Bedford Watch that our roads would deteriorate; there is not a sane person with any level of understand on this that would disagree. However, I don’t believe that this reason alone should preclude commercial development. First, I am certain prior to development an impact study would be performed on what type of impact the development would have on the infrastructure in that immediate area. This impact study would then allow for our Site Plan committee to instruct the developer that they will be responsible for the upgrades in that area as a part of their development. This is a common practice, not only in Bedford Township, but everywhere. For example in Monroe when the Wal Mart was built the local government required Wal Mart to pay to repave the road (expand?) and put in traffic control systems in that area.

Bedford Watch said that a Wal Mart would put a further pinch on our police and fire. They used scary figures like 714 calls to the ‘closest’ Wal Mart in Toledo on Central Ave in the past two years. They failed to qualify a couple of things. First, this particular Wal Mart is located on the corner of two very busy streets that allow for simple ingress and egress from the store location and that it is located less than 1 mile from a major expressway cutting through the area. Two, they failed to mention that this particular Wal Mart is located within walking distance of some low income areas of the City of Toledo.

Bedford Watch failed to consider a lot of things in their Wal Mart and crime argument. One of the biggest I found was that the particular Wal Mart they used as their example isn’t the closest to our township. I used the Lewis and Sterns as the epicenter of this argument of mine and found that the Wal Mart in Oregon, OH is actually a full 3 miles closer than the one used in their examples.

I found this to be intriguing for a couple of reasons. The location of the Oregon, OH Wal Mart is much more synonymous with the type of development that would occur in our own township. The size of the community the store resides in is similar to Bedford as is the median income. The Oregon, OH store is approximate in location to low income and crime areas to what a development at Sterns and Lewis would be. Why do I mention all of this? Because according to an anti-Wal Mart website that Oregon, OH store has only had 53 police complaints from 2002-2005.

Finally, Bedford Watch wanted you to believe that Wal Mart would put all of our local businesses out of business. I thought Mr. Gene Stock made a wonderful presentation and point at the township meeting about the first ‘big box’ that ever came to Bedford and the actual economic boom that came with it. One could point not only to the Oregon, OH Wal Mart as an example but also to the Wal Mart located on Glendale in the city of Toledo. Commercial development sprang to life on Glendale Ave. in an area that previously was a big empty open field that previously had shown no signs of life.

I do not wish for this entire argument to revolve around Wal Mart as it never should have to begin with. The point I am trying to make is that Wal Mart is not necessarily some scray Godzilla like monster that could come into our township and kill it’s make up and charm.

For the record I am not pro-Wal Mart whatsoever but that has more to do with their support of Chinese and foreign products than it does anything else.

Back to the point - this whole mess never should have involved, revolved around, and had anything to do with Wal Mart. As Supervisor Walt Wilburn said the rezoning votes are based solely on land use and the speculative nature of what that land use could become. I’ve previously tried to say that but did do poorly on the Bedford Now Chatter. I think once everyone has a firm understanding of that then this issue will go away peacefully.

Now some other random thoughts from the vote night:

- I can appreciate Ms. Sherri Meyer’s no votes on the parcels with the exception of the parcels due north and south of the dealership. These parcels would have little to no effect on the day-to-day lives of the residents of Indian Acres of they were rezoned (which they were). It creates the thought in my mind that all of these no votes were simply no votes for political posturing. If memory serves me right Mr. Jim Goebel voted no on all of the parcels with the exception of the two due north and south of the dealership. Please correct me if I am wrong.

- Where were all the people who supported rezoning all six parcels? Was it really only Mr. Stock?!?

- If I heard the words Northtowne Mall one more time I think I was going to throw up. Yes, there were crime problems over there as that area is notorious for issues with crime because its located in a hot bed for it! Sure, our township is only a short drive from there but don’t you think if all the miscreants were going to come here and cause trouble they already have?

- The very public excoriation of Mr. Paul Francis by Bedford Watch leader Doug (unknown last name) and Mr. Dennis Steinman were uncalled for. Mr. Francis has no legal conflict of interest in this case and there was no need to recuse himself from the vote or abstain. He stands to receive no financial gain from the rezoning or eventual sale of this land. Nor does he have any fiduciary ties.

I am certain this is not the last of this issue. Bedford Watch will move their fight to another arena, Jon Whitman could likely take the township to court again over the denial of parcel number six, recall efforts, who knows?!?!

All I hope for is that Bedford Watch becomes who they say they are .. a group of citizens who are concerned for their own investment and their own property. There is nothing wrong with that … nothing at all. I can respect that just don’t represent yourself as a community watch dog when you’re only watching out for yourselves. Also, drop the fear mongering and deliver a proper, consistent, and legal message don’t play on speculative fears give me a real reason for concern.
Reports from those physically present at the meeting (I viewed on TV) was that Mr. Steinman showed up more than halfway through the meeting, paced around until public commentary time, made his statement and then left. Mr. Steinman had to be reminded to speak towards the Supervisor repeatedly and was waving his finger around and making a mockery of the system he was a part of for 28 years. He knows better than to act like that at a public meeting.

Reports also say that when Mr. Francis made his apology to Doug from Bedford Watch that Doug was seen rolling his eyes.

I suppose I should bump my blog on civility back to the top of this page?

Ok, so after reading, deciphering, and coming to a (speculative) conclusion I proved myself wrong and then right. You’ll see.

It was my earlier contention that there were similarities between 2008 Indian Acres residents and 2000 New Colonial Gardens residents. 2008 Indian Acres residents are battling the potential rezoning of land immediately east of their neighborhood on Sterns while in 2000 New Colonial Gardens residents were up in arms about the potential Kroger Plaza being built immediately east of their neighborhood off of Sterns. HOWEVER, the land Kroger was to be built on was also zoned C-2 Shopping Center; therefore, no rezoning needed to take place for the plaza to be built.

BUT

I did find out some history where my contention was off approximately 21 years. Follow along.

The land at Secor and Sterns had been zoned C-2 Shopping Center dating way back into the 60s. In December of 1978 Bedford Land Improvement, Inc. came to the township asking that all but 25 acres be rezoned. The rezoning asked that 9.92 acres on the far west side of the parcel be changed from C-2 to RM-2 (multiple family) and an additional 6.55 acres adjoining the other parcel from C-2 to R-2B (multiple family and single family).

At that time residents of New Colonial Gardens (the subdivision immediately west of present day Kroger) were against the rezoning. Unfortunately the minutes do not indicate why. The motion to approve and reject never passed the Planning Commission  on December 20, 1978 mostly do to an absent member; the votes for each went 3-3. At this time the Township Board would have the final say.

There was something that caught my eye in the minutes which leads me to believe why the residents were against the rezoning. Richard Mueller, a PC member at the time, stated that there had been no commerical growth at the intersection of Secor and Sterns for the past ten years. This would date back to 1968. It is my contention and belief that the reason they were against rezoning the land was because they wished for that area to remain void of any structures - residential or commerical!

Unfortunately for the residents on February 6, 1979 (the night before I was born!) the township board by a vote of 4-3 voted to approve the rezoning. Needless to say the residents weren’t happy and the predecessor to BedfordWatch.com was born. The residents petitioned and gained a referendum forcing a special election to overturn the rezoning that was approved …. and won! At this time the entirety of the property returned to C-2 Shopping Center zoning.

So I was wrong in my contention about a similarity between Indian Acres residents of today and residents of Colonial Gardens in 2000. However, I was somewhat correct … just off a few years!

I’ve tried to find articles indicating displeasure regarding Kroger building there and creating a plaza and haven’t come up with much - mostly because internet archives for the BN and MEN don’t date back past 2005 it appears. I found one quote from the recent Whitman meeting, made by Gail Keane, that mentioned the anxiety of residents living near Secor and Sterns circa 2000 regarding the Kroger build but that she believed it turned out ok.  I would tend to agree and it appears that during the site plan approval meetings in 2000 that Kroger made it of great importance to listen to the nearby residents and address their concerns. The type of lighting was discussed, an agreement to move a dumpster, ensure that there would be no loading docks behind the strip plaza, and that deliveries would only occur during normal waking hours, and that trucks would enter and exit off of Secor Rd.

It seems to me a lot can get done at the site plan approval meetings. This could be of great benefit to the Indian Acres residents.

I still support the rezoning. If it is of great issue to the Indian Acres residents should the rezoning pass they should follow suit of the New Colonial Gardens residents of 1979. Otherwise work through the proper channels to ensure that any potential disturbances are discussed and handled via site planning approvals. It seems to me that Kroger has been a great corporate neighbor (I live nearby myself). The lights aren’t intrusive (it’s quite dark behind the plaza at night), the area is well maintained, they sponsor the car show, etc. Who is to say that a similar great corporate neighbor couldn’t be a part of that property at Sterns and Lewis?

There has been a lot going on recently regarding the recent decision by the Planning Commission to recommend rezoning several parcels of land at the corner of Lewis Ave and Sterns Rd (commonly referred to as the Whitman land).

Much is being said about the topic at the Bedford Now Chatter site. I am actually mildly surprised at the reaction.

My feeling is that provided Mr. Whitman develops the land according to the Master Plan then he has done no wrong. The angst towards Mr. Whitman and his family for going about rezoning their land by the channels prescribed to them by the township is ludicrous to me.

A commenter on the BN Chatter, Soccerdad, put things into perspective regarding the rezoning. Soccerdad stated the following:

C-3 is not too much different than C-2; it allows all of the same uses of C-1 and C-2, plus a few extra.  This is one of the BIGGEST misunderstandings out there that everyone needs to understand - a large-scale retail development (call it a “big-box” if you want) can be placed on EITHER a C-2 or C-3 zoning…it is not limited to just C-3.  There are CURRENTLY 20.74 acres of C-2 zoning on the Whitman property along Lewis Avenue - a large-scale retail development can come in today, and as long as the development meets the Township’s ordinances, there would be no stopping it.

Here’s another big misunderstanding out there - the PC voted to recommend approval of 2 portions of current C-2 zoning to C-3 along Lewis Avenue (about 6.9 acres).  Changing of the zoning for these 2 areas from C-2 to C-3 has virtually no affect on the ability of a large-scale retail development to be placed on the property.  There are some site-design/setback differences, but nothing significant.  Also, by ordinance, the limit to the size of a building under both C-2 and C-3 is exactly the same - 25% of the net parcel area.  Changing of these 2 areas from C-2 to C-3 does not suddenly allow a large-scale retail development to come in - they could come in today under the current C-2 zoning.

Right now much is being made of nothing. As stated above under current zoning a large retail center could be built on the property today. The denial of the rezoning of the critical parcel largely disallows a Wal Mart type of center to come in and develop the land.

Lewis Ave is the commercial corridor of Temperance. The development of this area over the past 21 years, the time I have lived in the Bedford area, has been tremendous and it will continue to grow as the township continues to grow. Look at Secor as an example. I remember moving to Bedford in 1987 and at the corner of Secor and Sterns was a couple of banks, Foodtown, a gas station, Flick’s, and the cinema.  Now both roads are four lanes through the intersection and numerous more commercial businesses and plazas have developed.

Time will tell what will happen at Lewis and Sterns but my best guess is it will include significant commercial growth in some way, shape, or form.