A sign along West Street north of Lima protests against a possible industrial park in American Township.
David Trinko | The Lima News
LIMA — In the age of new development, local residents in American Township wish to keep a “country feel.” The Allen Economic Development Group presented at the board of trustees meeting in September to discuss potential development in the area. In the meetings following the presentation, community members spoke on why they did not agree with the idea.
According to the board of trustees meeting minutes, developers were looking at 875 acres of land north of Bluelick Road. American Township trustee Paul Basinger said the land is currently owned by several different farmers. Basinger also said residents at this time have no interest in further development. The minutes also state that resident Shelly Reiff said her family has chosen to “live in the country and want to keep it country.” Several other residents joined the meeting with concerns regarding the potential project in “their backyard.”
Local resident Jeff Davis shared additional concerns including conflict of interest and the type of “industrial business park” it will be.
“The other big concerns the residents have are how an industrial park (like they are proposing) would negatively affect home values in surrounding areas,” Davis said. “We are concerned how noise, air, water and ground pollution would impact residents’ quality of life for everyone in surrounding areas, not just adjacent to the industrial park.”
“Another big concern is if one of these plants was built here and they had an emergency, it could affect residents far beyond American Township — even Allen County,” Davis said. “At the meeting, they did not bring up all the ways it would negatively affect the residents; they just tried to say how good it would be. Money for schools without saying there would be years of tax abatements, jobs without saying where they would get people to work.”
As of today, the potential project is still on hold.
“We’re in the same place we were in the beginning. Nothing has happened,” Basinger said. “Nothing can happen in that process until a property owner comes to us wanting to rezone their property and that has yet to happen — there’s nothing we can do until we are approached by a property owner. The individuals that own most of the farms have to come to the trustees and ask for rezoning — it would then go to our zoning board to deny or recommend a change.”
Basinger also said because of non-disclosure agreements from the developers the AEDG is unable to share what the potential project would be. AEDG Director of Business Development Cindy Leis said the non-disclosure agreement is not for a specific site or location in the area.
“All of our leads come from JobsOhio,” Leis said. “JobsOhio is our state economic development organization. They send out leads and we submit them — they are always under a project code name so we do not know who the companies are.”
AEDG President Dave Stratton said the organization is currently evaluating the pros and cons of the project.
“Presently JobsOhio has requested that communities identify areas of 200-800 acres for development,” Stratton said. “Other factors that are key to locating these buildings and to have site-preparedness of acreage are the proximity to interstate highways, the locations on state routes, and the availability of utilities such as large water, sewer and power capabilities. These taxes would benefit schools, townships, the county, parks, Children Services, mental health and senior citizens activities.”
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
