City of Milford Council
January 2, 2002


The Council of the City of Milford met in Regular Session in Council Chambers at 745 Center Street at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, January 2, 2002. Mayor Kolb opened the meeting with the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.

Roll Call: Present - Mayor Kolb, Ms. Hinners, Mr. Metz, Mr. Bishop, Vice-Mayor McBeath, Mr. Gradolf, Mr. Antell

Reading of Minutes: Motion by Ms. Hinners and second by Ms. McBeath to waive the reading and to approve the minutes of the December 18, 2001 Regular Meeting. All voted yea.

Swearing In: Law Director, Mike Minniear swore in re-elected Council Members Kim McBeath, Jim Antell, and Jim Gradolf.

Mayor Kolb opened the floor to Council for any nominations for Mayor.

Motion by Mr. Gradolf and second by Mr. Metz to nominate Mr. James J. Antell for Mayor.

Mayor Kolb asked if there were any other nominations. Hearing none, Mayor Kolb requested that Council cast their vote on ballet one for Mayor:
Votes for Mr. Antell: 7 Votes against Mr. Antell: 0 Law Director, Mike Minniear declared Mr. James J. Antell the City of Milford's new Mayor.

Mayor Kolb opened the floor to Council for any nominations for Vice-Mayor.

Motion by Mr. Antell and second by Mr. Gradolf to nominate Mr. Lou Bishop for Vice-Mayor.

Mayor Kolb asked if there were any other nominations for Vice-Mayor. Hearing none, Mayor Kolb requested that Council cast their vote on ballet two for Vice-Mayor:
Votes for Mr. Bishop: 7 Votes against Mr. Bishop: 0
Law Director, Mike Minniear declared Mr. Lou Bishop the City of Milford's new Vice-Mayor.

Swearing In: Mike Minniear, Law Director, swore in Mr. James J. Antell as Mayor.

Swearing In: Law Director, Mike Minniear, swore in Mr. Lou Bishop as Vice-Mayor.

Mayor Kolb and Vice-Mayor McBeath stepped down from their positions at this time.

Mr. James J. Antell, Mayor and Mr. Lou Bishop, Vice-Mayor assumed their positions at this time.

Mayor Antell started off by Thanking Craig Kolb and Kim McBeath for their years of service as Mayor and Vice-Mayor.

Correspondence: Clerk Barrons-Sweeney asked Council if they would like to request a hearing for the Acapulco Mexican Restaurant to acquire a new liquor license within the City of Milford. Motion by Mr. Gradolf and second by Mr. Kolb to not request a hearing. All voted yea.

Clerk Barrons-Sweeney read to Council a Thank You Letter from Larry Conover Furniture and Appliance.

Clerk Barrons-Sweeney reminded Council that OKI is requesting updated information for their database. Therefore, if they would please fill out their form and return it to the Clerk by the end of the meeting.

Comments: None.

Public Hearing: Mayor Antell opened the Bryco/Gatch Public Hearing.

Assistant City Manager, Jeff Wright, presented the Staff Report by stating Council will recall that on December 4, 2001, this request was continued, pending the applicant's response to several questions raised by Council. Since that hearing, the applicant has submitted a revised Preliminary Development Plan, dated December 8, 2001, as well as provided several other submittals and documents pertaining to Council's questions of the proposed development. On the revised Preliminary Development Plan now under consideration by Council, the applicant has increased the minimum lot frontage to eliminate any 45' lots, but has kept the total number of lots proposed as 355, which is the same number as last month. Basically, in order to make these revisions, the applicant has eliminated one of the proposed pocket parks and the other revision to the former plan in order to increase the widths is that they've added seven lots that would front the proposed connector road that would connect Garfield Avenue to South Milford Road. It's really the elimination of the small park and the additions of the seven lots on to the roadway were the only major revisions to the plan.

Also, Mr. Wright reported a summary of the revised Preliminary Development Plan, which has not significantly changed. A copy of the Staff Report has been attached with the details of the summary.

Mr. Wright reported that Ms. Rokey, John Sansalone, the civil engineer for this project, and Mrs. Ryan, of the developer's group, toured two existing single family developments. Mr. Wright showed a short video of the community they visited. Then, Mr. Wright shared with Council pictures of the community, Ashley Meadows.

Vice-Mayor Bishop asked Mr. Wright if the two communities are similar and about their up keep.

Mr. Wright advised the two are similar to one another.

Mayor Antell asked if anyone had any other questions for Mr. Wright. Hearing none, Mayor Antell invited the applicant to speak at this time.

C. Francis Barrett, 105 E. Fourth Street, Suite 500, Cincinnati, Ohio 45202, attorney for the property owner and the applicant.

Mr. Barrett introduced the following individuals to Council: Donna Ryan, Bill Ryan, and John Sansalone.

Mr. Barrett referred to the meeting held on December 20th that was held at Mr. Burke's office to answer questions presented by Council. Present at that meeting were: Tim Burke, Mike Minniear, Loretta Rokey, Jeff Wright, Bill Ryan, John Sansalone and myself.

An outcome of this meeting was the suggestion to your similar subdivisions already in existence. Two such developments are Ashley Meadows in Union township Clermont County (just north of State Route 32) and the Villages of Heritage Green in Deerfield Township in Warren County (North of Fields Ertel Road).

Mr. JOHN SANSALONE:
John Sansalone reviewed several plats that he had given Council a copy of today, which described the proposed building site and how they plan to develop the site.
* The first plat showed the general vicinity of the proposed building site.
* The second plat was an Arial, this is the process used to develop a subdivision.
* The third plat that Council had copy of, but Mr. Sansalone did not have a larger board of, is a topographical map which is usually made from the Arial photograph.
* The fourth plat is actual core prints.
* The fifth plat is the FEMA map, which was colored so that it could be understood a little better.
* Contour lines
* These lines run diagonally through the property at all sections, with one at each end. FEMA has established at these points what a 100 year flood would be.
* Yellow lines
* These lines are called Zone X, which means FEMA has designated this area as area above the 100 to 500 year flood.
* Light Green lines
* This area is in the flood fringe. You can develop in the flood fringe as long as you do not disturb the channel or raise the possible flooding potential of the channel by one foot.
* Blue Area
* This is part of the flood way. Development is not allowed in this area.
* The sixth plat - This area shows the lots of the proposed development, where the developer is asking for a variance on the side yard approximately two-feet.
* The seventh plat - This area shows the elevation for the site.

Ms. Rokey asked Mr. Sansalone if dirt could be removed from the flood way area.

Mr. Sansalone said, yes you can take dirt from a flood ways area and you can also fill, as long as the fill and the dirt you take away balance each other.

Mr. Sansalone said they would not be working in the flood way area at all.

Ms. Hinners asked, if the developer has planned for nice banking and mounds in their plan?

Mr. Sansalone stated, he would explain this on the next plat.

Mr. Metz asked, with your experience, can you predict 20, 30, 40 years down the road as development up stream of this flood way as it continues, how much will that affect the flood level?

Mr. Sansalone said that with the construction of the up stream of the dam, etc., that is planned when they make those calculations. Two things are done which is determining what the run off is as of today and you determine what the projected run off is from roofs and roadways and things like that. Therefore, when this projection was taken into effect it should and does take in fact-developed ground up above.

Ms. Hinners asked who is going to be responsible for the pocket parks located throughout the development.

Mr. Sansalone said these parks would probably end up under the Milford Schools jurisdiction, but for public use.

Mr. Kolb stated he noticed that the Findley Ray connector is not on this plat.

Mr. Sansalone advised, that it is on another plat and Mr. Sansalone showed Council where the connector stops at this time until a 12 inch water main can be installed before the road can be connected to the subdivision.

Vice-Mayor Bishop asked Mr. Sansalone what percentage of the homes presented in this development are 1,500 feet or greater as opposed to smaller?

Mr. Sansalone referred Mr. Bishop to the breakdown information in his packet.

Mr. Francis C. Barrett, asked if anyone had any further questions. No questions were asked at this time.

Mayor Antell requested a break at 9:10 p.m.

Mayor Antell resumed the Council Meeting at 9:25 p.m.

Mayor Antell opened the meeting for public comments.

 Ms. McBeath advised Council that she needs more information regarding traffic study for this project.

Mr. Francis C. Barrett stated he is not familiar with this study, but your consultant LJB is highly regarded. And I know that our consultant's Pflum, Klausmeier & Gehrum are highly regarded. I would think that maybe the two of them should get together and resolve these discrepancies in whatever way you suggest would be appropriate.

A decision was made for Pflum, Klausmeier & Gehrum and LJB to meet coordinated through Loretta Rokey.

MR. STEVE MYER:
Mr. Steve Myer, 17 Laurel Avenue, presented three documents to Council. The titles of the documents are as follows:
* Summary of South Milford Development Report
* Addendum to Fischer Group Executive Report for July 2001: RE: Milford/Bryco Property Development
* Fischer (sic) Group Executive Report, July 01, 2000: RE: Milford/Bryco Property Development

The summary report is a project I was assigned by Henry Fischer of Fischer Homes a feasibility study that Fischer wanted undertaken when he perceived that there were some concerns form the Council and from his other executive team members who had been here in attendance.

Mr. Myer reviewed a Clermont County topographical Arial map and photos.

MR. LEN HARDING:
Mr. Len Harding, 222 Cleveland Avenue, asked do any of these boring logs that were passed out do any of the bores indicate whether bedrock were encountered or are we just going down to -

Mr. Sansalone, no bedrock.

Mr. Harding asked the following questions:
* Will these homes be eligible for flood insurance at an affordable cost?
* Will the storm system pollute the river?
* Where did the money come from for the road?
* What are we being sold?

MS. RACHELLE RAPP-DICKERSON:
Ms. Rapp-Dickerson, a Milford Resident, spoke to draw attention to a couple of points and ask a couple of important questions that need to be considered and thought about.
* There's an area near the South Milford Bridge where the river takes a deep cut in to the farm field and that area of the farm field right there is what the developers were considering the borrow area. This is an area of very bad erosion caused by the farm fields going right up to the edge of the river and there's no trees, no nothing, fields and there's a straight 15 feet drop off straight to the river. If this area becomes an area of borrow how do you dig a five-foot hole when there's nothing on the other side of it but river right there. Do you just go right over to the river?

The borrow area would be used temporarily, it would be a hole and then it would be filled back in. My question is how long is temporarily?

When you replace this borrow area with topsoil, if I followed along that's what's going to be put back in there from the lower Gatch property, does the topsoil that replaces the other more solid dirt have any more or less eroding capabilities?

MR. SHANNON REYNOLDS:
Mr. Shannon Reynolds, 515 Mill Street, advised Council that increasing the number of homes in Milford by 355 this would increase the number of homes in Milford by 43%.

Mr. Reynolds expressed concerns of increased traffic due to this development and the new proposed school not being big enough before it's even built.

Mr. Reynolds stated he hears the developers asking the City for several variances for this development such as: lot size, side yard, and size of the homes. Where are we going to draw the line as a Community?

Mr. Reynolds said he's very concerned about building in this area of that much moisture because of black mold.

Concerned about future liabilities because the Contractor are we going to hold him liable for all the costs the City is going to incur from cleaning up all the problems and the loss of the value of the homes if it does flood. How long is his liability going to be to the community for any kind of problems that we're going to incur as a community because of this development?

Mr. Bishop stated someone would need to ask if flood plain insurance would even be available for this development.

Gene Binning, 150 Laurel Street, said, he thinks this ground was made for corn and soybeans and we should leave it that way.

Mr. Steve Myer, a Milford Resident, stated that he and his family went to the Milford Showcase Cinema and at the bottom of their floor towards the screen was wet from the commercial catch basin out back.

Mayor Antell asked Council if they have any other questions at this time. None were taken.

Mayor Antell summarized some of the items that came out during the public comments section:
* Flood insurance
* Proximity of the gun club to the development
* Flooding events in general
* Storm sewer system and a possibility of run off pollutants into the river
* Traffic concerns
* Potential extra costs to the City for services
* Erosion along the river bank , near the river bank, and elsewhere
* How long will the borrow area remain open
* Type of construction parin beam
* Is there another community that could be presented as a sample that does not have basements? A community that would be similar to this.
* Issues regarding the school, if the school would have enough potentiality for all the students
* The number of variances that might be requested of the City
* Health issues, black mold
* Would like to see a schedule of when the road between Garfield and South Milford would be connected fully before anymore construction could move on

Mr. Bishop stated he did more fact finding and to find out why MI Homes developer decided not to develop this site. What he found out is listed below:
* Not enough dirt to keep out of the flood plain
* Spend more money on sewer lines than what we previously thought
* Possible wet land issues

Mr. Metz asked why would the cost of the homes need to bare some of the costs for the school site, cost will add an average of $1,500 per lot?

Ms. Hinners made three points which she would like an explanation for at the next meeting:
* Two large builders, who?
* Time line, what does this mean? How is it going to impact this?
* Like to know about the road?

Mr. Bishop stated chapter 1169.01 is the PD in the Milford Code book and under purpose section E it sates, to allow for creative development that conforms with the goals and objectives set forth in the Milford Land Use Plan. So I am a bit concerned about the concept about retention basins in that flood plain because if I'm reading the goals of the Land Use Plan we shouldn't be doing that.

Mr. Bishop asked if we put retention basins in the flood way, are we not violating one of the goals of the Land Use Plan?

Mayor Antell closed the floor at this time.

Motion by Mr. Gradolf and second by Mr. Bishop to continue the Public Hearing in progress until January 15, 2002. All voted yea.


Standing Committee Reports
Public Services: No report.
Administrative Services: No report.
Safety Services: No report.
Community Development: No report.

Mayor Antell made Committee Appointments as follows:
Public Services: Administrative Services: Community Development:
Mr. Gradolf, Chairman Ms. Hinners, Chairman Mr. Bishop, Chairman
Craig Kolb Kim McBeath Mr. Gradolf
David Metz Craig Kolb Ms. Hinners

Safety Services: Board of Zoning: Planning Commission:
Mr. Metz, Chairman Mr. Metz Mr. Bishop
Ms. McBeath
Mr. Bishop

OKI: Ohio Public Works Commission: Cable

Commission: Mr. Gradolf Mr. Gradolf Mr. Kolb

City Manager: Ms. Rokey reported the Service Department is picking up Christmas Trees from now through every Wednesday in January.

Ms. Rokey reported a minor break in the 6-inch main on Seminole Trail December 19th.

Ms. Rokey advised any Council Member who would like to attend the Planning Workshop coming up to contact her or Jeff Wright to sign up.

Committee Meetings to be scheduled:
Public Services
Monday, January 7 4:45 p.m.
Community Development
Tuesday, January 8 5:30 p.m.

Several reminders were reported; please see City Managers report dated January 2, for details.

Police Department: No report.

Fire Department and EMS: No report.

Old Business: None.

New Business: Maggie Campbell Reynolds invited Council on January 22 at 7:30 p.m., 515 Mill Street to join a neighbor to neighbor conversation on racial issues in this community.

Final Comments
There being no further business to come before Council, the meeting was adjourned at 11:00 p.m.

______________________________ _________________________________
Joan Barrons-Sweeney, Clerk James J. Antell, Mayor
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