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For now and for months to come, there will be no more active discussion on potential zoning and development changes to property that includes the former Wieser and Cawley building and 17 acres on the other side of Colegate Drive.
The second of two public meetings on a "planned use development" proposed by Gene Hollins and his wife, Kelli Cawley, was Tuesday evening at Gilman United Methodist Church.
The second meeting was to answer a number of questions residents of North Hills raised concerning zoning, traffic, utilities and other issues they envisioned adversely affecting their neighborhood.
But no answers to those questions will be addressed while the City of Marietta is in the midst of Reimagine Marietta, a project to create a new comprehensive plan and update the city's planning and zoning code. The city has engaged professional planning, zoning and development firm Compass Point to aid in that process, and Geoff Schenkel, Marietta City Council's committee chair for Planning, Zoning, Annexation and Housing, said the final results will involve a full-blown process of adding, eliminating, rewriting and changing the zoning map. That will take at least nine more months, he said.
In addition to Schenkel, Hollins, Cawley and a number of residents from North Hills, the Tuesday meeting was attended by Marietta City Council members Bill Gossett, Cassidi Shoaf and Bill Farnsworth; council president Susan Vessels; council clerk Michele Newbanks; and attorney Brodi Conover of the firm Bricker and Grayden, which represents the city as a resource for questions surrounding the planned development.
Schenkel emphasized he was not correct in his initial impression that Hollins and Cawley wanted to change existing city zoning. What they want is a Planned Use Development instrument that can be applied as an overlay to existing zoning in a more specific manner -- a zoning and development approach in use in several Ohio cities, though Marietta is not one of them.
Much of Tuesday's meeting was spent discussing resident questions relevant to such a change.
He gave all the North Hills residents information on how they can further participate in the city's planning and zoning future by visiting www.ReimagineMarietta.com. There is a resident survey on the website he invited them to use. He also told them he would be glad to work with them if they're interested in meeting regularly as a neighborhood unit.
Even if the Tuesday session had no actual zoning issue to advance or resolve, Schenkel said he felt it was a valuable way to educate and involve citizenry. "I don't think anyone on staff, let alone on council, has ever done this."