Tapped Out?
Lack of Approved, Available Sanitary Sewer Connections for M/I Homes Hill Farm 2 Development at Issue
M/I Homes is poised to advance a rezoning application to Hilliard City Council in August that would, if approved, allow for the construction of 300 single-family homes on 266 acres at the northeast corner of Scioto Darby Road and Langton Road, and on the east and west sides of Elliott Road, approximately 3,600 feet north of Scioto Darby Road.
It includes 41 acres of parkland in Brown Township and Union County.
M/I Homes is asking City Council for consideration of the rezoning application without a supporting recommendation from the city’s planning and zoning commission or from the Big Darby Accord Advisory Panel.
Each entity is an advisory body but its recommendations are part of the presentation that Hilliard City Council considers before acting on a rezoning application.
The City of Columbus is to provide sanitary sewer taps and water to the site and while the capacity exists, an agreement between Columbus and Hilliard to provide those services is not yet finalized.
“We are not at that point yet,” to be able to make a recommendation because no sanitary sewer taps are yet available to us, said Carson Combs, a planning manager for Hilliard.
This is not the first time sewer taps have been at issue regarding development on the city’s edges.
An overview of the city’s sewer utility position can be found in this excerpt of the Comprehensive Plan
In the here and now, according to a June 13 staff report, “staff finds that the City of Hilliard does not currently have sanitary sewer taps to allocate for the proposed project. Based on this finding, staff is not prepared to make a recommendation concerning the proposal.”
The Hilliard Planning and Zoning Commission on June 13 acted accordingly and voted 7-0 to withhold a recommendation for the rezoning application.
John Barkan, vice president of lands for M/I Homes, called the action on June 13 an “unacceptable response.”
He later said that M/I Homes would, after a traffic study is finished, present the rezoning application and a developer’s agreement to City Council for consideration, likely in August.
A positive recommendation from the planning and zoning commission or the Big Darby Advisory Panel is not required for City Council to consider the application.
The Hill Farm development consists of 229 single-family residences on 205 acres at the northwest corner of Scioto Darby and Elliott roads.
In voting against the proposal for Hill Farms II, commission member Pete Marsh said he was concerned about acting prematurely.
“I am concerned about setting a precedent of approving taps when we do not have them in hand,” said Marsh, suggesting the applicant wait until such a time.
In light of such comments, commission chairman Bevan Schneck asked Barkan if he still desired to advance the application.
Barkan replied that if the commission was in agreement on the substance of the application, and their only concern was access to sanitary sewer taps, then he desired a vote.
After the planning and zoning commission rejected the recommendation, Barkan told planning and zoning commission members that it was an “unacceptable response.”
Joe Miller, an attorney representing M/I Homes, told commission members before the vote that the recommendation should be made as there is adequate capacity and that a sewer tap allocation agreement will be finalized.
Miller said M/I’s proposal meets the conditions of the city’s comprehensive plan for the conservation district and as such should be allowed to advance while a sanitary-sewer tap agreement is finalized.
“We are taking the onus ourselves that it will be resolved in the near term… We believe the tap issue is between Hilliard and Columbus and a good middle ground is to consider our plan,” Miller said.
This issue of taps available has always been a political matter, not one of system capacity. This was the mechanism past leadership in the City of Columbus kept a leash on past leadership of the City of Hilliard. The question is how well the current leadership of both cities are getting along with each other.
And we can't dismiss the enormous political power of the developers. Look at the campaign finance reports of municipal politicians - mayors and city council members - and in many cases you'll see substantial contributions from developers. It's been that way for decades.