The Aurora Master Plan Committee is beginning their beginning. Here are minutes from the 3.27 meeting. Interesting stuff…
CHARLES FREDERICK
Mr. Frederick reminded the Board that they are under mandate from charter to do this entire endeavor in 8 months, which means they have 5 months left to finish off everything to get to August for a final draft plan to submit to Planning Commission, Council and public meetings. There are a few people on the agenda who will be guest speakers at today’s meeting. After the guest speakers there will be a presentation for inventory mapping to show about the existing conditions of the City of Aurora and the region of northeast Ohio. Next month starts the analysis, the presentation of the analysis and then the visioning sessions will begin and go into May. June and July we will be reviewing and coming up with implementation strategies and working on the first draft. Revisions for the final draft will be done in August and September we will have the last review before it moves on.
The bus trip tour around Aurora will have to happen sometime soon, due to the fact that this Board needs to look at the existing conditions in Aurora and have serious discussions regarding where things are working well and where things are not. This needs to be done right before or during the visioning sessions.
The city comparables chart was an assignment given at the last meeting. Everyone was supposed to drop 7 of the 12 cities and then rank the 5 left. Mr. Frederick would start the research of what they have in terms of existing planning documents so that we can use them as ways to understand how they made their decisions and to see if it could influence us in any way. The matrix will list the cities Mr. Frederick gave you information on and across the top will be everyone’s initials and how they ranked their top 5 cities. Hudson received a vote from everyone on the commission and it also had a high total rank score.  Hudson has a very good master plan that was just done a couple of years ago. Bay Village was the second highest total rank and they have a master plan that was done in 1999 by the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission. Chagrin Falls, which was ranked 3rd, does not currently have a master plan but they do have a very thorough historic preservation code and streetscape plan.
Mrs. Evans asked how Mr. Frederick felt about possibly doubling up on the meetings in April and May because she felt people would be traveling and out of town more so in the summer. He felt that would be OK but noted we may have to cut back at some point so that they do not go over budget.
Mr. Ober asked, when the visioning sessions start, is that when everything will answer the questions about all the information we are hearing, because right now we are getting a lot of useful information but it is hard to put it all together. He was wondering if that is when they will start discussing the key elements and the key components that we need to talk through and help us to get structurally organized.
Mr. Frederick stated if anyone had serious questions he would try to answer them at anytime. At the next meeting we will need more space to write things up on the wall, mapping exercises, list issues and then discuss everything.
Mrs. McKenzie asked about using the Senior Center to hold the next few meetings. Mr. Kraus stated the schedule would have to be checked so there is no conflict with the seniors. Mrs. McKenzie felt during the visioning session we should consider having a meeting every two weeks at an alternate site. She felt opening everything up at one meeting and then waiting a month is just too long to wait to try and remember everything. Mr. Wehrenberg stated the senior center is used a lot during the day so we may have to check with the fire station to see if their room is available.
Mr. Frederick stated there is a staff meeting every two weeks, so if the commission would like to meet every two weeks that would be okay as long as everyone would have time to get their homework done. It was decided to add an extra meeting on May 8th.
Mr. Frederick stated at the visioning sessions, we may need to break off into groups and then come back and report everything at that time.
TONY BADALAMENTI – PRESIDENT-AURORA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
JENNIFER NATALE – EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR-AURORA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
The Aurora Chamber of Commerce represents about 200 businesses in Aurora. The community and city government talk about lack of businesses in the city. The opportunity with the master plan, is being able to zone or look at areas that would be good to develop. Right now, there are several areas in town that a developer would have to go and try to change the zoning code for 2, 3 or 4 acres of land. With the master plan commission, the blocks of land should be looked at now instead of leaving it up to developers. Mr. Badalamenti asked the board to consider what people want, where do they want to put it and then consider the zoning in that area. He felt the master plan might be a good place to take a look at the sign code. The master plan could say this is what they want the city to look like as far as businesses displaying their names and how business fit signs into the business. Maybe their could be separate rules for a compound unit like the Aurora Premium Outlets or Barrington Town Square.
Mr. Ober asked about our past zoning classifications such as planned development, where there is housing and then up front by the street there would a piece set aside for a commercial frontage. He felt when the board ID’s these areas on the map they need to take into account that some of these already have commercial chunks designated to occur and in a matter of time the developer will want to develop these.
Mrs. McKenzie asked Mr. Badalamenti if he felt the businesses that he represents, would prefer like a downtown/central area. She felt it would be better to have a central place, or a way to work it into what we would consider a center of Aurora, with multiple businesses in a streetscape type fashion, like Hudson, as opposed to re-zoning small parcels when the best they are going to offer is two or three narrow storefronts. She felt people might think twice if they have to drive all over verses parking their car, take a walk and having everything in one area.
Mr. Badalamenti felt we are a little too late for that. We would have to tear down a lot of buildings and start over to do something like Mrs. McKenzie talked about. He could not think of anywhere in town where we could do an area like Mrs. McKenzie is referring to. He felt Aurora is more of a drive up community. Mr. Badalamenti recalled several acres of property down on Bissell and 82 that was supposed to be a business but they walked away because it took 2 _ years to get all the approvals. Most businesses will not wait that long to accomplish their task.
CHIEF SETH RIEWALDT – AURORA POLICE DEPARTMENT
Chief Riewaldt reviewed the last master plan and felt the main concern was in regards to traffic.  Most of those concerns pointed out the need for secondary routes around town, mainly in the summer months when traffic from Geauga Lake Park would cause gridlock at most of the main intersections. The concern was people from the east and west sections of the city trying to get to the main roads without having to hit 43 and 82. He felt this problem has somewhat alleviated itself but, in the future it is still a good idea to give other ways around the State Routes.
Mrs. Scott asked if Chief Riewaldt anticipated more bicycle patrolman and asked him to explain more about this.
Chief Riewaldt explained that several years ago they would take 4 officers off of routine duty and put them on bike patrol for the summer. This would be rotated among 8 or 9 officers. At this time, the staffing level does not allow us to be able to do this. Bike patrol has been reduced to July 4 and the fireworks. They are put out when they need to get through a crowd more effectively. He would describe his department as being very lean. In this geographic region, in this size town, it should be between 2 to 2.2 officers per 1,000. On the low end, you are looking at between 30 to 32 officers, Aurora currently has 25. Chief Riewaldt wants people to understand that he is not looking for new officers, anytime a new officer is hired you are looking at about $80,000 per year for at least the next 25 years. In answer to Mrs. Scott’s question, we do not put out bike units anymore. He would like to be able to put them out because it was very well received in the past.
Mrs. Scott asked if the master plan commission decided to create a pedestrian area in the center of town would that change the strategy of the police department.
Chief Riewaldt responded that police departments used to be set up in urban areas, they walked the beat, got to know everyone in the business and could respond to individual problems. But as sprawl occurs, police officers can not walk so they are put in cars where they end up losing touch with the community. They stop finding out about the day-to-day problems and the nuisances that the taxpayers were complaining about. Currently at the Aurora Farms there are officers that get out, walk and get to know the managers in that area which returns to a more traditional form of policing.
Councilman Jim Vaca felt the recommendations should at least be put in the master plan. He felt that certain high density neighborhoods should have some foot patrol officers or bike patrol officers. He understands that some of the outlying neighborhoods would be difficult, to do this kind of patrol, but the higher density neighborhoods could benefit from this. He has seen some good results from foot patrol officers in Reminderville. He felt the recommendations should at least be put in the master plan, if finances are available, if the patrol people are available, not putting it in is like saying we don’t support it.
CHIEF DAVID BARNES – AURORA FIRE DEPARTMENT
Chief Barnes recommended to the master plan commission to limit the number of multiple family dwellings, expand the water system wherever possible and looping the water system back to another part of it. One of the biggest problem with fires is multiple family dwellings and apartments. He mentioned that moving through traffic has gotten a lot better and the fact that they have two fire stations is a big plus because they can come from two directions. They handle 95% of their own calls without any help from other communities.
Mr. Ober asked what the mix is as far as safety calls verses fire calls. Chief Barnes stated out of about 1,850 calls last year, about 1,300 were EMS calls and about 400 were fire calls. A lot of the EMS calls are to nursing centers and independent living centers.
Mr. Lykins asked Chief Barnes if he was referring to joint condos when he was talking about multiple dwellings. He stated, yes they would be included. In most cases, is there adequate water supply if there is a major fire in these areas. Chief Barnes stated there are some areas that are better than others. Most of the areas that have multiple housing are on the water system. The ones on Treat Road only have one line going to them and it is not looped. Eventually that should be looped to get a better water flow. Mr. Lykins asked if there is something in the code that says the waterlines have to be looped. Chief Barnes stated that an engineer will tell you that the flow through one line is fine but if there was ever a water break and there is only one line in, that would mean there is no water. If the lines are looped, all you have to do is shut off a valve and you have water coming from the other direction. Chief Barnes felt that currently the city was doing a good job of keeping up with this, but would like the Master Plan Commission to take this into consideration for future growth of the city.
Mrs. Scott asked how the Fire Department responds to houses that have a well. She also asked if they keep statistics on the location, age, and what type of calls they go out on for EMS runs. Chief Barnes stated they do have reports that they can run off of the computer, they may not be by neighborhood but he could run them off by street. When they get a call that is in a non-hydrant area, they will call a tanker truck (which carries between 2,500 to 3,000 gallons of water) from either Mantua, Bainbridge or Streetsboro. Mrs. Scott asked about the cost of calling for a tanker truck. Chief Barnes stated there is no cost involved. The one thing about houses that have a well is most of them are spread out and do not usually involve apartments or condos. The bad thing is that usually they are fairly large houses. He also stated, it is always better if someone is on city water verses a well but there is a large cost factor involved.
Mrs. Scott wanted to know if he could tell her in which neighborhood they would have the most EMS calls. Chief Barnes could not give a specific neighborhood, but did say they would mostly be to nursing homes, independent living centers, and neighborhoods with a higher concentration of elderly people.
The question was asked about access to get into different subdivisions. Chief Barnes responded, the more ways to get in, the better.
Mr. Lykins wanted to know if we are adequately staffed, and if the fire stations are positioned in such a way that there is not a long run to any fire or do you see a potential for a new fire house in the future. As certain areas are developed the two fire stations we currently have should serve the majority of the population. The longer runs are usually in the more rural areas. A new fire station would depend upon where things are developed and the frequency of calls in the area.
Mr. Vaca commented that when a new development comes in, it should somehow be connected to an older development. An example would be the Geauga Lake neighborhood that was developed in the 1920’s and then in the 1970’s Aurora Shores was developed. There is no efficient way to get to Aurora Shores, without going through Reminderville, or up Aurora Lake Road. Mr. Vaca wanted the Commission to keep in mind when you add water lines to the outlying districts, you also open up to higher density, land being more valuable, and the land being more developable.
COUNCIL REPRESENTATION
Mr. Vaca wanted the Commission to consider having an option of putting restaurant type businesses into the industrial section of town. He felt this might draw some business from Streetsboro, on their lunch hour, and it is also in a section of town where traffic is minimal. Mr. Vaca also commented on how restrictive our sign code is. He felt the commission should also consider this in the master plan. When you consider the zoning of the master plan, make sure it is legal friendly. When you suggest zoning for a specific area make sure it coincides with the charter and our zoning codes, otherwise it will end up in court.
Mr. Fisher referred to the comparable chart that was handed out at the meeting. He was curious as to how the commission came up with their rating for Hudson and Chagrin Falls. When the comparables were done, what was looked at, was it that the downtown area was great, were there pieces of Hudson and Chagrin Falls that were true comparables to us.
Mr. Fisher would like to see more commercial in Aurora. You can influence that a little bit by the way the master plan is structured. When the commission is going through the fact finding exercise, they need to ensure that there is the right amount of commercial space and that it can be supported economically.
The fire and police chief brought up some valuable points, but they all cost money. Once you conceptualize and you think you have something embraceable, make sure you do the financial exercise, because council will look at that, as much as the idea of what needs to be done.
Mr. Liston asked about the tax abatement percentage for commercial/industrial. He wanted to know if it was something that was negotiable. Mr. Fisher stated he believes there are specific guidelines set by the State of Ohio, and that is what would be followed.
Mr. Lykins wanted to know if they should be taking into consideration, non-dedicated streets, while considering the residential portion of the master plan, because it seems that a lot of the new developments going in are non-dedicated streets. Do we see more of a trend for this, from the administration, in the future. Mr. Fisher felt the new communities being developed today, that are non-dedicated street communities are satisfying all ODOT guidelines for the width of the street and the storm sewer infrastructure, in case they decide to flip them some day.
Mr. Rausch wanted to ask the group, what does Aurora want to be relative to the historical part of the city when it grows up. Last night at council, they passed local landmarking for the two Harmon properties. They did so without totally understanding what the cost to the city would be.  There are some historical and landmarked places that are city owned and there are some historical properties that are privately owned. Mr. Rausch felt poorly maintained historical properties do not add any value and are a negative to the city. In his opinion, he would rather see those properties torn down and something new built in its place. He wanted the commission to think about how much of a historical area do we want in Aurora and what do we want it to be like in the future.
Mr. Fisher agreed with Mr. Rausch in regards to landmarked and historical properties. If you have a plaque on a home, because it has historical value, and the front porch is falling off it does not do much for our community. There is a cost to maintaining historical buildings owned by the city and there are guidelines that need to be in place for those who have historical landmarked designations. Once this commission establishes some standards, in saying, once you have established landmarked designations we are looking for some type of commitment to restore or to maintain.
Mr. Lykins commented that we are looking at this master plan for the future. We have to satisfy a lot of different groups, the Landmark Commission, Historical group and Council. This is a big challenge to try and bring everyone together. There are a lot of solid points brought to our attention today but it will be a big challenge to get a solid plan and bring everyone together.
Mr. Fisher commented, that will be one of the top two to three challenges for this group. Each little group has their own playground and they don’t like people coming in and trying to redefine the boundaries of their playground. Whether it be Council, Planning Commission, Landmark Commission they all have their guidelines and they covet their areas significantly. How you interact and how you communicate your vision to other committees in the best interest of Aurora, is why you are here.
Mrs. Scott wanted to respond to an earlier question of what does Aurora want to be when it grows up and she felt the answer was on the comparables sheet. She felt everyone wanted to be Hudson. Why? Because they have managed to bring in national brands, their downtown is fabulous, it is well maintained. They have managed to keep their small town charm and have their cake and eat it too. The one reason that will not happen to us is because none of the national brands will be interested in us until we get to this magical number of 20,000 residents. If we do want to have our fabulously maintained properties, commercial districts, and pedestrian destination then the underlying question to make that happen is are we going to get the residential density up.
Mr. Lykins stated, in order to achieve things that are being mentioned it would cost an immense amount of money.
Mr. Fisher stated the comments are right on target. If we are going to continue to be an 18,000 population community, then we will not be able to get to certain points. Keep in mind Hudson had a little better foundation to build off of because of what their historical downtown area represented. There may be an acceptable point between where we are and where they are.
Mrs. Scott commented that the city just lost the lawsuit with the Beljon property and that could be a sign of things to come. (Olive notes: they didn;t loose , they gave in) They have waterlines and sanitary, which means the state says this notion of one per acre, or whatever it is, is not kosher. We could recommend higher density and do it the way we want to have it happen. She thinks the answer to all of our dreams is to think about higher residential density.
Mr. Fisher felt the Commission should think about everything and not allow the reason why you wouldn’t do it to creep in too soon. Mr. Frederick will help with all of this.
Mr. Vaca wanted people to understand that Aurora was not Hudson or Chagrin Falls. Aurora was a rural community and if you want to bring back the old town charm, tear out the asphalt and bring in the ruts. That is what Aurora looked like 200 years ago. Hudson and Chagrin Falls were kind of like cities back then with a downtown area. Our downtown area was City Hall, the church, Three Elysabeth’s and maybe a few more buildings. If you want to build a nice historical town, move what you already have. Mr. Hettinger moved a house from Mennonite Road down to his property. There is not much we can do with this unless you want to redo history from 200 to 300 years ago.
Mr. Vaca stated abatements are almost necessary to get industrial to come into town. As long as we follow the state guidelines we will not have a problem with it. There is also an abatement for people in the Geauga Lake area and Sherwood area for adding an addition and major improvements. They are getting a 10 year abatement. This will bring up the property value of houses in the neighborhood.
Mr. Vaca felt private streets are a touchy issue. Currently when private roads are put in they are built to city spec’s. So when they decide they are tired of paying taxes and getting nothing for it, the city can say as long as the road is built to city spec’s, we will take it. Mr. Vaca felt the commission should shy away from non-dedicated streets in the master plan, but if they have to have them make them be built to city spec’s.
Mr. Lykins would like to wrap up the meeting by discussing the visioning structure, bus trip and then come up with a date for the next meeting.
Mr. Frederick had some mapping that he wanted to show the Commission. He explained how when he was working on another master plan, they had an interesting strategy of displaying a lot of information without having to go through a long presentation and then used that as the pretext into the visioning session. This will get everyone thinking about everything and then there will be a mapping exercise for the Commission to finish before the next meeting.
At the last meeting the bus trip was discussed, but the date did not work out. The bus trip would take a complete meeting time. It was decided the bus trip would take place on Tuesday, April 3rd.
There were some concerns about whether Geauga Lake Park would still be here in the next few years. At one point they were thinking about putting in an indoor water park at Geauga Lake Park but Kings Island became available so they used the funds to purchase it instead. Mr. Lykins felt they have made substantial investments and he does not see them just walking away.  Mr. Fisher recommended they work on two scenarios when considering the master plan, one that Geauga Lake Park is still here and one that it is gone.
There was some discussion about a community center in Uniontown that Mrs. McKenzie went and toured. She gave the information to Mr. Frederick.
Mr. Frederick explained the map he passed out and what he wanted the Commission to do with it. He would like them to map their personal interpretation of the city. He would like them to study the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats. Strengths are things that are already existing that you don’t have to do much to, that are already in the community. They need to be labeled, located and integrated into the ideas. A weakness is something that already exists and is a fundamental issue that is of some concern. An opportunity is something that is not quite there yet, but it is almost there or maybe it has to be completely re-created or introduced in some form. Threats are something that are not there but are looming on the horizon. Strengths should be represented in blue, weaknesses in red, opportunities in green and threats in yellow. The more coloring and information you have on your map the better we will be able to understand what made you come to your decision. At the visioning meeting they will be put up and you will be asked to explain.
Mr. Frederick presented his slide presentation and gave the Commission some ideas. They may want to extend services into certain areas, reclassify, upgrade or drop the zoning density for various reasons, they may wish to expand the CRA area or make the historic area bigger. We have most of the information that will help us integrate into our decisions. There are a few more things that we are still trying to find. The land use is the first phase of the analysis that is going to let us look at different density alternatives, different capacity studies for the city, environmental impacts and cross benefit relationships for creating infrastructure. The Commission needs to look at the different community characters. We have some information from the county and we are using their land use designation. For land use to be a useful analysis tool, we need to quantify and classify every area on the map. We need mapping on how you see things and what is your basic understanding of how this community operates. This will be just as important as our land use mapping for the progression of the issues of where the master plan wants to go.
ADJOURNMENT:
Mrs. McKenzie moved; Mrs. Evans seconded, and the meeting was adjourned at 3:07 p.m.
______________________________Â Â Â Â Â Â Â _______________________________
Joe Lykins, Chairman                   Sheila Martin, Secretary
ROLL CALL:
Present:Â Â Â David Cooper
Sheila Evans
Bill Liston
Joe Lykins
Maureen McKenzie
Gordon Ober (left at 2:17)
Jane Pennock (entered at 1:02)
Rita Scott (left at 3:05)
Absent:Â Â Â George Balog
Also Present:Â Â Â Richard Wehrenberg, Director of Planning, Zoning,
& Building Division
Denise Januska, Planning & Zoning Inspector
Karen Monaco, Planning & Zoning Inspector
James Fisher, President, City Council
James Vaca, Councilman , Ward One
Carl Rausch, Councilman, Ward Three
Charles Frederick, Master Plan Facilitator
Russ Bennett, Superintendent, Aurora City Schools
James Kraus, Parks & Recreation Director
Courtney Schumm, GIS Coordinator/Arborist
David Barnes, Fire Chief
Seth Riewaldt, Police Chief
Tony Badalamenti, President, Chamber of Commerce
Jennifer Natale, Executive Director, Chamber of Commerce
Sheila Martin, Secretary
