POWELL — Powell’s new zoning code now stands unchallenged after the city’s law director and council found that a referendum petition to repeal the new code was invalid.
The new code went into effect Sept. 3 after being approved by council at the beginning of August.
“For context, the older code lasted over three decades. It was very cumbersome, the new zoning code only sought to replace that for efficiency,” City Manager Andy White told council.
The day before the code went into effect, the city received a referendum petition seeking to repeal the approved ordinance.
Referendum petitions allow citizens to challenge and attempt to repeal a law recently passed by their local governing body, or even state governing body.
They must be submitted within 30 days after a municipality passes legislation and they must have enough signatures from city residents who are registered to vote.
Per Section 6.04 of the city’s charter, which establishes the framework for Powell’s government, a referendum needs signatures that represent 10% or more of the total ballots cast at the last preceding general municipal election, or last November’s election.
After the petitioner submits a referendum to the city’s clerk, the clerk then sends a copy of the referendum and the submitted signatures to the Delaware County Board of Elections to certify the validity of those signatures.
MORE ON POWELL ZONING CODE:
Board of Elections finds petition does not have enough signatures
There were five circulators, or signature gatherers: Megan Dowdell, Brooke Moree, James Burton, Mary Ashton and Rhonda Worcester.
Dowdell previously voiced her concerns with the new zoning code to council during a public comment session, asking council to vote against its approval.
“In that proposed rewrite, it prohibits me from building a house, a single-family house on the land that I own,” she said. “It’s my choice what I want to do with that. If I want to have a house, I should be allowed.”
Karla Herron, director of the Delaware County Board of Elections, told Delaware Source the petition needed 409 signatures to be valid.
“Our only job is to look at the signatures,” Herron said.
Board of Elections (BOE) staff certified that only 405 of the signatures were valid.
However, Powell’s Law Director Yazan Ashrawi noted the BOE initially submitted that 397 signatures were valid on Sept. 16, but then amended its reporting to say 405 signatures were valid.
“Although this amendment does not affect the outcoming of this process, it is the law director’s opinion that the amendment is procedurally and substantively wrong,” City Manager Andy White wrote in a memo to council.
According to the memo, the city charter requires all valid signatures to include the elector’s voting precinct. Eight signatures did not include the correct precinct, which is why they were initially excluded.
Herron said those precincts were not required, and thus did not disqualify anyone who did not list the correct precinct.
Council also approves park work
In other business, council also approved Schubert Tennis LLC to perform maintenance to the tennis courts at Arbor Ridge Park.
“[The courts] are showing some major distresses. It’s not safe to be out there playing tennis,” Powell Director of Public Services Charles Dukes said.
“We’re about to lose temperatures, but if this is approved to move forward, we’ll try to get the base repairs done on that court and then the topical treatment on that is time-sensitive, and it’s weather-driven, so that might push to the next calendar year,” he said.
The maintenance work will cost $71,240, which is lower than the budgeted amount, Dukes said.
Council also approved 76 Fence Columbus Northwest to complete Phase 1 of fence removal and replacement at Bennett Farm at a cost of $107,580.
Phase 1 includes the removal and replacement of fencing with a new cedar fence along the south side of the property, which abuts the Shalebrook neighborhood.
Eventually, subsequent phases will replace fencing on the other sides of the property.
“It’s in fairly significant disrepair. In fact, significant sections of it are missing, some of it is rotted,” White said.
“When the city acquired the park, that was one of the first discussions we had with the public was the concerns over safety and potential issues that would come from the vacancy in the farm with wildlife.”
Dukes said now that council has approved the work, he will draft a contract with the company and will soon know more about when that work will begin.
