Meeting Minutes – May 9, 2023

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Initiatives

It’ll cost $5000 for the attorney to do the work. That includes drafting through the entire process of writing, researching, training how to do this, petitions, etc.

We’re asking for everyone to contribute (at least) $100 toward the legal fees for this. If we don’t pay it now, we’ll likely end up paying a lot more later as the city takes control. There is a chance we’ll get pushback from the city and end up in a lawsuit, but that should be a relatively short process.

We’re working on changing the city’s process so that they stop passing everything under the emergency clause. They will be forced to put issues up for the people to vote on instead. This makes sure we have a voice.

The timeline is that we’ll have everything back from the lawyer by June 1. Then we need to get signatures from then until August (60 days before the November election). We think we’ll need approximately 2500 signatures. The signatures will be submitted to Jim Staschiak.

The donations we gather are 100% write-off. You can write it off as a legal fee or as dues.

The only way the $5,000 would increase is if we get challenged in court. This $5,000 to the lawyer will get us to the election.

To contribute:

Business Meeting

Treasurer’s Report: $4,810.05 is currently in the bank, with $462.88 outstanding expenses and some dues received in tonight.

Motion to approve April minutes – Mary Ann, 2nd Larry

Chamber of Commerce:
Motion to withdraw from the chamber
What value do they add to our group? No one in attendance tonight knows for sure, but it’s worth investigating.
8 voted in favor, 9 voted opposed
We will stay for now. Please consider this for 2024.

Chamber events calendar: https://members.findlayhancockchamber.com/chambercalendar

Some meetings that may be beneficial for our group:

All of our members are welcome to attend any chamber meeting.

New Business

Tom Ross was featured in the Courier article: “No Oversight in Sight for Landlords”: https://thecourier.com/news/456902/no-oversight-in-sight-for-landlords/

The mayor incorrectly stated that no one has oversight over landlords. There are a lot of things that we as landlords are subjected to. Tom Ross has a list of 17 codes that we are subjected to that he will bring up at council – ORC, fire code, electric code, health code, drug policies, landlord/tenant law, domestic violence cases, Ohio EPA/lead-based paint, TOSCA, Tier 2 reporting, hazardous waste disposal, OSHA standards, etc.

For drug and domestic violence cases, if a landlord is aware of it, they are required to report it. Even the federal EPA could come in and inspect a property. We are almost as heavily regulated as Cooper Tire and every other business in town.

Each of these organizations we’re subjected to have their own inspectors, or at a minimum, they have call checkers to make sure people are not discriminating.

Tom is going to send his detailed notes on this to our group. The Courier clearly lied in this article, and Tom is going to share this at the next City Council meeting (Tuesday, May 16).

Motion to adjourn: Tom, 2nd Linda

Guest speaker: Matt Cordonnier from the Hancock County Regional Planning Commission and Zoning

mcordonnier@findlayohio.gov, 419-424-7094, 3rd floor of the city building

Planning and zoning for the city and the county. He’s been the director since 2013, worked with RPC since 2005.

Significant update to the zoning code (last major update 2017). These will be discussed at the planning commission meeting this Thursday, who then makes recommendations to City Council.

There’s nothing that directly affects single-family, duplex, triplex, or rental units.

Highlights of changes:
  • Creating 3 new districts, removing 2 districts
  • Creating an agricultural district, I-3 light industrial, and traditional PUD (Planned Unit Development)
    • Agricultural district: Sometimes farmland needs to be annexed into the city in order to get an industrial development annexed as well. This district allows for cases like that where the owner wants their property to stay as farmland.
    • I-3 light industrial: The purpose is to regulate wind turbines. It’s not meant to allow large-scale wind turbine development; turbines must serve a specific building. Companies looking to move into Findlay want wind turbines, so this would allow that to happen. The city has control of wind turbine construction within the city limits. We currently have a wind turbine ordinance, but it’s outdated.
    • PUD: Most communities have a traditional Planned Unit Development. Findlay had one until 2012 when it was replaced with the PRUD & PMUD. No one has really used these categories. This is for when someone has a large plot of land and wants to develop it with commercial, residential, etc. (a variety of uses). It’s a zoning ordinance that’s negotiated between the developer and City Council. It’s a specific classification for that piece of land. This provides more flexibility in the code for larger developments coming to town, and it can be used for infill development of existing properties.
  • Removing PMUD and PRUD (Planned Mixed Unit Development and Planned Residential Unit Development) – no one has used these.
  • The solar ordinance has been reworked.
  • Sign code:
    • Pylon signs are no longer permitted (example: Menards). Ground mounted signs are to be used instead.
    • Billboards: New construction of billboards is being limited within Findlay. Now, you can’t put another within a 2500-foot radius of a billboard. This leaves room for only 1-2 more billboards to be constructed, on the north side of town. Billboards are only permitted in certain zoning districts.
    • Electronic message boards (example: fairgrounds sign): these are limited to 25% of the total constructed sign.
    • Wall signs: A size regulation was proposed for anywhere in the city. This has been removed from the zoning code. No one has abused this so far. Wall signs are only regulated within C3 downtown district. There is a sign size limit based on the frontage of a building.
    • Yard signs: There is conflicting information available regarding the placement of signs in a yard.
  • Accessory uses in residential: Added requirement for accessory structures for storing and parking vehicles where access to the building must be paved from property line to structure. This only affects new structures moving forward or large additions to existing structures. If you have an existing garage with an unpaved driveway and you add to it, you’d need to pave the entire driveway plus to the new section too.
  • Accessory dwelling units: If R3 or R4 and you want to have a detached living unit (i.e., convert a garage to studio apartment), you can’t do that. Only multi-family allows for separate buildings with multiple living spaces. (This is not a new rule.) Tiny homes: no one has approached the city for this with a permanent foundation. You can have a tiny home of a minimum of 800 sq ft as your residence depending on zoning level, but you need a permanent foundation. To add another dwelling, the property owner needs to request M2. Different residential zones have different minimum home sizes. (500 sq ft is the minimum size for a multi-family dwelling.)
  • Utility trailers in office, commercial, and industrial: trailers must be stored 30’ from the right of way or within 10’ from the primary building. This is intended to target trailers that are used as signs. They must be parked on a hard surface – pavement not gravel. Are properties grandfathered into this? That’s a gray area. If you’re focused on advertising, why does it include utility trailers? This is definitely too broad. Tom has requested that our protests will be brought up to the zoning committee.
  • Good Standing Clause: Only the property with zoning violations can be denied further permits, not another property owned by the same person. A new zoning request could be denied even if a new request is unrelated to an existing violation. This further defines the Good Standing Clause. Is this all violations or just zoning violations? Matt will have to look. Tom has requested further clarification of this, but Matt says, “It means what it says.”
  • There is an appeal process for zoning regulations now.
  • No setback regulations have changed.
  • No duplex, triplex, etc. regulations have changed this time.
    • The zoning map was updated in 2020-2021 because the city had 500+ homes zoned as light industrial or commercial. This update made residential properties to be zoned residential.
    • A lot of research was done into duplexes and triplexes. These were made conditional use R3. They erred on the side of the property owner with these changes. These units need to have the required off street parking.
    • This cleaned up and organized the zoning system, especially for duplexes and triplexes to verify that they are in good standing for being multiple family dwellings.
  • Annexation: The city wants to offer the opportunity for surrounding properties to annex into the city.
    • There are 7-8 “donut holes” that are surrounded by the city of Findlay (example: Speedway on Tiffin Ave and the houses behind it). Those are the first priority, then the city looked at the perimeter areas.
    • Two letters were sent out regarding this to tell people it was optional to a point; it would be by majority rule in that area whether they get annexed or not.
    • The goal is not to force people into annexation but to offer the option and see if the majority are for it.
    • People were asked to respond by May 1, and none of the donut holes got over the 51% minimum. There are a few isolated cases of a large property contiguous to the city that will be annexed in. Additional properties that weren’t asked to be annexed have come forward to request to be annexed in.
    • Advantages can be quicker response times for fire and police. Those with city water not in city limits pay 50% more than those annexed. Income tax is different. School district taxes are separate from city taxes.
  • The auditor’s map does not have zoning on it. To see what you’re zoned, call the zoning office.
  • Remember to pay your 2023 dues! These can be done via cash, check, or PayPal by creating an account on our website FindlayAreaRentals.org. Dues can be mailed to us at PO Box 221, Findlay, OH 45839. See interim treasurer Katie Erickson for any questions on that.
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