Residents want recreation land
By Kevin Kelley
Westlake
Published Jan. 10, 2007

City Hall and the Westlake City Schools have been haggling for several months over 42 acres of undeveloped land the district owns on Bradley Road. Now a group of citizens is hoping to weigh in on the property’s fate through a petition drive.

Bill Hornung, an active volunteer in the community’s sports and recreation leagues for several years, submitted a petition with 157 signatures to City Council Thursday.

He promised several hundred more signatures would be coming.

“We, the undersigned, voters of Westlake, Ohio, would like that the 42 acres on Bradley Road to be utilized for recreational purposes,” the petition states.

Hornung wants City Council to begin a process by which Westlake voters can zone the Bradley Road property for residential use only.

“My intention is that this land, currently publicly owned, stay for the enjoyment of its citizens now and forever,” Hornung wrote in a letter accompanying his petitions.

The city has contemplated purchasing or leasing the Bradley Road property for years to utilize for sports and recreational fields.

Council President Michael Killeen referred the petitions to council’s Planning, Zoning and Legislation Committee, which will soon schedule a meeting on the issue, he said.

In August, the school board rejected the city’s offer of $1.9 million for the land, saying it believed they could get more money for the property even though a district-sanctioned appraisal set the value at $1.7 million. The board obtained a second appraisal last month which set the value at $3.97 million.

Killeen said Thursday the school board recently made an offer based on the second appraisal. While the city didn’t outright reject the offer, it didn’t agree to it either, Killeen told West Life. The two parties have agreed to continue negotiations over the land.

The district has also explored putting the land up for auction. It is widely anticipated a private developer would build single-family houses on the property. The land is currently zoned for residential use.

Killeen said the city had some questions about the district’s second appraisal.

“I still think that the city’s offer (of $1.9 million) is at the generous end of fair,” Killeen said.

Killeen and Mayor Dennis Clough seemed to welcome the petition drive. In recent years, groups opposed to Clough’s administration have successfully utilized petition drives to place proposed Charter Amendments before Westlake voters.

“We may have part of the solution in bringing it to the voters of Westlake as your petitions indicate,” Clough said.

Killeen said a number of technical issues would have to be worked out before any measure could be placed before voters that would change the land’s zoning.

Bob Parry, the city’s director of planning and economic development, told West Life the city does not now have a zoning category only for recreational use.

“We allow public uses in just about every (zoning) district,” Parry said. “But there are some communities that have a public use (zoning) district for public properties.”

Council could create a public / recreational zoning category by ordinance and rezone a particular area, Parry said. Both the creation of a new zoning category and any rezoning would have to be referred to the city’s Planning Commission for approval. However, council could override a rejection by the Planning Commission with a 5/7 majority vote, Parry added.

Council could also act on its own and put a rezoning measure before voters, Killeen said.