Trending
Planning was at the center of three discussions amidst three hours of Marietta City Council committees Thursday.
Pedestrian Safety Planning
Streets Committee Chairwoman Susan Boyer focused her questions on grant administration of the Ohio Department of Health's Creating Healthy Communities' programmatic funding Thursday following the citizen-driven outline of pedestrian safety needs along the Franklin Street Corridor in the lower west side (Harmar).
"We were recently contacted as a neighborhood, from the county health department's Creating Healthy Communities Coalition as part of their 2021 work plan for improving pedestrian infrastructure," prefaced Councilman Geoff Schenkel, D, Fourth Ward (the ward in which Harmar and the lower west side sit).
Schenkel explained that through consistent neighborhood meetings the needs of pedestrian safety were compiled into the data presented to council this week via a two-page letter.
For more on that needs assessment, see Wednesday's edition of Times'
"City looks at Franklin Street corridor."
Boyer asked Sherry Ellem, county coordinator of the state program, to explain how the county came around to offering a $50,000 grant discussion with the neighborhood group, finding clarity in learning the work is an extension of existing partnerships the city already has with the county health department.
Ellem explained it's also an extension of last year's work between the county department and the Marietta-Washington County Convention and Visitors Bureau's "Bike Marietta" program that is awaiting, according to Public Works Director Jim Wark, further clarification on site-specificity from Marietta Main Street before installation planning and implementation can proceed.
Wark and Safety-Service Director Steve Wetz have both noted challenges with imprecise mapping in that project that have conflicted with handicap accessibility requirements and clearance on city sidewalks.
Ellem said a similar contract to that of the city's implementation of a walking trail and disc golf course on Harmar Hill at Gold Star Park, completed with Creating Healthy Communities funds under the Joe Matthews mayoral administration and work of previous Development Director Andy Coleman, can be used as a template by the city for accepting the grant funds from the county if approved by the state.
Council gave unanimous support for the additional application to Ellem, who is expected to submit state paperwork today concerning the project with an overview budget from City Engineer Joe Tucker of $5,000 for engineering and design, $42,500 for construction costs and $2,500 for construction administration.
Mayor Josh Schlicher noted that not all safety needs may be addressed with the $50,000, but acknowledged the investment of a first-year address of the corridor.
Federal Community Development Block Grant Planning
Daniel Everson, the new development administrator for the city, made an appearance during Schenkel's Planning, Zoning, Annexation and Housing Committee on Thursday to explain an expedited timeline moving forward before the conclusion of spring.
This followed an hour-long discussion Thursday morning with the Times, Schenkel, Wetz, and Everson concerning course-correction following the exit of Mike Gulliver from the development office at the close of 2020.
Marietta had been under increased scrutiny throughout the closure of 2019 following the exit of Coleman and the reinstallation of one of his predecessors, Gulliver, who was carried over from the Matthews administration into the Schlicher administration.
Everson explained Thursday that starting afresh, he's focusing first on regulatory compliance and education of both council and the public to better and more appropriately use the federal program administered by the U.S. Department of Housing and Development.
Past CDBG program administration in at least the last decade has been project-driven, he explained, rather than needs-prioritized for low-to-moderate-income individuals and areas.
"What that skipped over in the assessment of HUD was the needs assessment process," Everson summarized. "And basically, what the phrase they used, the administration told me is 'you put the cart before the horse.' And that's kind of what Jordan (Frase, the city's HUD representative in Columbus) has also confirmed to me that that was just kind of done backward."
Now -- working under a deadline to course-correct citizen participation planning, needs assessment compilation, consolidated (multi-year) planning, strategic (priority needs) planning, and finally annual planning (also called action plans) -- Everson asked for council to introduce an updated citizen participation plan with an emergency clause next week.
"The citizen participation plan is almost like your constitution," Everson said. "There's your locally-adopted groundwork … within which you develop the rest of your actual plan you submit to HUD."
Everson said the new plan is modeled off of the compliant and approved plan of Bowling Green, but noted updates and additional changes adding citizen access can be outlined at a later date.
Zoning Planning
Schenkel also noted as a final agenda item of the evening that despite council members' requests for delay concerning zoning consultant work in 2020, no feedback had been provided by members of the administration and members of council to date.
Schlicher requested to meet with Schenkel next week to outline administration priorities to be included.
City Law Director Paul Bertram requested a priority to be included in a request for proposals also note legislative language changes and legal definition clarification and updates.
Boyer requested sequentially that land use or any potential changes in zones not be addressed until a clear process of how zoning is determined be outlined.