Recordpub.com - Streetsboro mayor

By Bob Gaetjens
Record-Courier staff writer
STREETSBORO " The mayoral candidates have a variety of opinions regarding planning, but a common element in their plans is the need for a new or updated master plan.
The current master plan dates to 1976, although a land use plan was written in 1999, effectively updating portions of the master plan, Kovacs said.
Kovacs said the need for the update is clear. During the past 10 years, the city has settled several legal complaints, in currently involved in two, and has been threatened with others.
She said the past amendments she suggested to the residential overlay rule which would have traded more open space for more tightly clustered houses would have kept the city out of court.
City Council and the voters have turned down Kovacs' proposed changes, but she said they're being adopted elsewhere.
"Other cities are taking our text and adopting it as their own," she said.
Wagner also said the master plan is necessary.
"It's my ordinance," he said. "I'd better support it."
The parks master plan ought to be incorporated into the master plan, he added.
Stenglein, a write-in candidate, said the current master plan and land use plan are inadequate.
"The master plan and land use plan do a great job telling us where we are," he said. "[But] we really don't have a master plan [that tells us where we are going]."
The master plan should include land use planning, possible alternatives for laying out future infrastructure, zoning and subdivision regulations and building regulations, he said, and all those "tactical plans" should be considered comprehensively to create the overreaching master plan.
"I want a master plan that tells me what the relationship between homes and schools and businesses will be," he said, adding he pushed for a master plan update when he was on City Council.
Broska, a write-in candidate, also said a master plan is needed, and it should secure the city against future lawsuits filed by developers by providing unimpeachable zoning regulations.
"We can't keep getting threatened every time we try to prevent some [development] good or bad," he said. "Millions of dollars are at stake."
Broska said the city park system needs to be improved, and the Portage County Parks District is a potential partner in developing it.
"I would like to see Portage County linked up like the Emerald Necklace," he said. "I also am very disappointed that our children don't have a decent playground."
Sanders, a write-in candidate and treasurer for the Tinkers Creek Watershed Partners, said she would bring up the possibility of a residential housing moratorium if elected. She said she would prefer larger lots than the eighth of an acre lots proposed in the residential overlay proposal that voters and Council rejected.
"I would prefer half-acre lots because of all the green space in my backyard," she said.
She also said privacy is sacrificed in tightly packed condominium developments.
There will be one more opportunity for voters to hear first-hand what the mayoral candidates have to say about various issues.
On Thursday at 6:30 p.m., there will be a candidates forum at the Hickory Ridge Clubhouse, in the Hickory Ridge subdivision off S.R. 303 just west of the center of town.
Hickory Ridge resident Nick Ciofani will moderate the event, which he said will be more of a question and answer session than a debate.
There won't be opportunities for rebuttals as there were in a debate earlier this month, he said.
Ciofani said he hopes Planning Director Linda Kovacs, Ward 1 Council member Tom Wagner, At-Large Council member Julie Sanders, former Council member Ron Stenglein, and Twinsburg Fire Capt. Glenn Broska, all candidates for mayor, attend the event. For more information, call Ciofani at 330-422-1980.