Officials consider 3 offers to update land-use plan
7/12/2006The Monclova Township trustees are considering three offers for rewriting the township's land-use plan.
Joseph Ballard, a retired staff member of the Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commission, offered to update the plan, either as a paid consultant or as a township employee. The township received offers from two planning firms as well.
Administrator Harold Grim is discussing with the Teamsters whether they would object to hiring Mr. Ballard, because the township's administrative staff are subject to a collective bargaining agreement.
Poggemeyer Design Group of Bowling Green, which wrote the original plan in 1998, estimated that each part of the proposal would take three months after the contract was authorized, with a cost of $42,200.
Beckett and Raeder of Ann Arbor estimated completing the project in nine months, for $62,418.
Mr. Ballard told the trustees that he thought he could get the work done in six to 12 months working about 20 hours a week, Mr. Grim said.
The proposed update would consider transportation, demographic trends, housing, recreation, and economic development.
It would also map existing land uses, including environmentally sensitive areas like wetlands and flood plains, and identify uses that do not conform to the township's zoning map.
Transportation concerns include making recommendations to account for future land uses. The plan would identify whether the township or another jurisdiction would be responsible for maintaining each road, and include current average daily traffic volumes and potential future traffic signals.
The consultant would be asked to evaluate the township's demographics since 1980, and project the population to 2020. In the 2000 census, the township had a population of 6,767. The Toledo Metropolitan Area Council of Governments estimated it at 8,486 in 2005.
The township asked for an inventory of housing types, average prices, a map of housing, and recommendations for the types of housing that the community needs for the next 20 years.
Recreation issues include mapping all public open spaces and identifying potential future recreational areas and bikeways.
The consultant is also to inventory all commercial, retail, and industrial development, analyze the tax benefits, and suggest the best locations for future development.
The trustees plan to award a contract in early August.
The plan was previously updated in 2003.