Sherwood Village Council           January 2004 

    Zoning for the new Sherwood Crossing development took the spotlight at the Sherwood Village Council meeting Wednesday. Village solicitor Steve Hubbard addressed council about the zoning document Poggemeyer Design Group was using to review the preliminary plans for the project.
       It was discovered that the 65-page zoning ordinance document the engineering firm was using in its review of the Sherwood Crossing plans was never officially adopted by the village. The amended 1954 zoning code was the valid and enforceable code that should be used to review the plans, Hubbard said.
      With that, Rick Weaver of Poggemeyer Design Group informed council that the preliminary plans for the project had been reviewed again using the 1954 code.
      There were still a few items in the preliminary plans for the project that did not meet code. If the developer, GMAC Butler Mohr Realty, wants to keep those items as drawn, it would have to seek variances.
"There's nothing serious," Weaver said. "It's just a few things that are not up to zoning or sub-division codes."
       Among those were four comer lots with, frontage of 78 feet. Zoning calls for no less than 83 feet frontage on lots. Also, there are several lots in the plans with a depth less, than the regulated 132 feet.

       Weaver said a letter would be mailed to the developers informing them of the variances needed and how they could go through the process of getting the variances. Personally, Weaver said that he, didn't think variances on the corner lots would be hard to get. "These lots are quite large on the radial curve," he said. "I really don't see much of a problem, myself, variance wise. Even though they are less (frontage) than required, the lots themselves are larger than the rectangular ones." The village's zoning board of appeals will have to make decisions regarding any variance requests.

       Turning to other issues, council adopted its 2004 annual appropriations ordinance. Estimated expenditures for the year are $1,170,194.39.

In other business, council:
 - adopted a resolution appointing Steve Hubbard as village solicitor for a two-year term. He is to be paid $110 an hour. The resolution allowed for an assistant solicitor, Rob Aplin, to be utilized on an as-needed basis at no additional cost to the village.
 - heard the water line on Ohio 18 has been installed. Pending testing, houses will be able to hook up to the line soon.
 - heard community development block grant application paperwork will be forwarded to municipalities. Officials should think about any projects for which they wish to seek grant funding.
 - adopted the Ohio Basic Code 2004 edition as the operating code for the village.