With only one item on the agenda, what could have been a quick meeting of the City of Bellefontaine‘s Planning Commission Tuesday, Aug. 11, turned into a verbal free-for-all that lasted more than an hour.

About two dozen residents who live both in and outside the city limits voiced their strong objections to the residential development of the Detrick property, which is over 143 acres of land located southwest of the Lake Avenue/County Road 11 and Troy Road/Township Road 218 intersection, directly west of Southview Park.

Commission President Rick Gildow stated at the start of the meeting that while citizens would be given a chance to address the commission, he was emphatic that the issues that were brought up at the last Planning Commission meeting would not be allowed to be reiterated again Tuesday.

Namely, those previous complaints included intersection upgrades, increased traffic and water runoff problems, all of which, he said, were addressed at the last meeting. The minutes from that meeting were not available as of press time.

The only action the Planning Commission was to take on Tuesday, Gildow continued, was to give a simple “yes” or “no” vote to the preliminary plat for the development presented by LeBaron Investments, an outfit which plans to construct 360 mixed-use residential units on the land.

Despite the announcement, this did not stop a number of residents from addressing the commission regarding flooding, water retention, increased traffic and inadequate roads that will service the development.

Dave Lyons, who lives just outside the city limits on County Road 11, told the commission that the area was rife will flooding problems already, focusing the underpasses on Lake Avenue and Troy Road.

“We need to address the existing conditions before we think about putting in new development,” Lyons told the commission. “We need to fix the water issues before that area is ever developed.”

At one point, Gildow cut off another speaker, noting that their complaints had already been noted on the record at the last meeting, again saying that Tuesday’s meeting was not open to repeats of the complaints that have already been brought to the attention of the commission.

Following that announcement, several of the two dozen or so citizens gathered in the council chambers began to shout at the commission from a seated position in the gallery, rather than approaching the podium.

These outbursts this led to Bellefontaine Service Safety Director and Planning Commission Vice President Wes Dodds to respond, with some heat, to those in the gallery.

Dodds made it clear that the meeting of the commission would not be conducted in such a manner. Shouts and comments from the gallery, Dodds boomed, is not how city business is conducted and such actions would not be tolerated.

He said further interruptions from the gallery would lead to the Bellefontaine City Police being summoned and offenders being removed from the meeting.

Following Dodds’ forcible declaration, the tension in the room was reduced to a simmer, and the meeting continued as planned.

Bart Barok, who represents LeBaron Investments, the company that is proposing to build a development, was the last of those to formally speak at the podium.

He told the commission that LeBaron has extended the road right-of-ways out to 60-feet, giving more buffer between the roads and the residential construction.

The newly-drawn buffers were forwarded to the Engineer’s Office since the last meeting and, like the July meeting minutes, were not available online as of press time.

City Engineer Jim Bischoff explained that the only changes to the new drawings that were presented to the Planning Commission Tuesday were to those of the right-of-ways spoken about by Barok and that no other changes to the preliminary plat – additional construction, street layouts and the like – were altered.

Barok also told the Planning Commission that LeBaron Investment would not be seeking any tax abatements on the property.

Gildow, Dodds and Bischoff all stressed that the preliminary plat that was to be voted on by the Commission at Tuesday’s meeting was exactly that – preliminary.

An affirmative vote to the preliminary plat, Gildow said, “was no guarantee, in any shape or form,” to give LeBaron Investments the green light to start construction on the site. Gildow said the vote was only a first step in a long line of hurdles that the developers must meet before breaking ground.

In this matter of the preliminary plat, the only authority held by the Planning Commission or the Engineer’s Office was to make sure that the construction plans as presented met or exceeded the city’s zoning and infrastructure standards, a point that was repeated several times during the course of the meeting.

It was further explained that the Bellefontaine City Council, not the Planning Commission, will have the final say on the matter once the final drawings are completed and submitted to the Engineer’s Office.

To this end, the Planning Commission found that LeBaron’s drawings had met all of the city’s requirements and voted to approve the preliminary plat by a 5-1 vote, with Commissioner Justin Dinovo casting the lone “no” vote and Commissioner Tammy Gump abstaining.

No other items were on the agenda for the Planning Commission Tuesday and it adjourned following the vote.

The Planning Commission is scheduled to meet again in regular session in Council Chambers at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 8.