By Jill Summerville
For Miami Valley Sunday News
The Piqua City Commission approved a resolution to rezone parcel J27-045800, 119 acres of land between Looney Road and Snodgrass Road during its Tuesday, July 11, meeting.
Rob Alexander, owner of Indian Ridge Builders and investor in the building project, requested for the land to be classified as light industrial claiming new opportunities for employment would motivate citizens to stay in the city of Piqua. Though the land across the street from the plot on Looney and Snodgrass is not property of the city of Piqua, it contains businesses classified as light industrial, the same zoning classification Alexander was requesting: a trucking business, a wood processing business, and a light manufacturing business.
Citizens who lived near the land parcel expressed concern that the light industrial zoning classification would lead to increased volume and density of traffic near their homes or damage farmland on their property. Though Alexander said he would never support policies that diminished his company’s $3 million investment in the city of Piqua, three citizens opposed the building project.
The Piqua City Commission approved the proposal because it meets the standards for the city of Piqua’s economic development plan. Further, the proposed zoning designation is similar to the county’s zoning designation for properties across the road from this land parcel, outside the limits of the city of Piqua, and, under the proposed zoning designation, this area would have no more intense traffic than contiguous areas.
Other resolutions approved at the July 18 meeting included:
• A resolution to approve the building of a new salt storage cellar at 859 S. Main St.;
• A proposal the commission determined would not harm the health, safety, or welfare of the Piqua community, a resolution granting permission for demonstrations of the proper procedure for handling and storing batteries at land parcel N44-250084,
• A resolution to change the buildings’ color palettes in the Victorian housing area in downtown Piqua.
The writer is a regular contributor to Miami Valley Sunday.
