SUBDIVISION ORDINANCE DELAYED AFTER HEARING
Friday, May 23rd, 2008 -- 10:14 AM
After a public hearing, the Clark County Board delayed action on a proposed subdivision ordinance Thursday night.Supporters of the ordinance say it addresses road development and surveying problems, but critics say it's Smart Growth in disguise and takes away township control over development.
"Citizens are not initiating nor supporting this," complained Margaret Grottke of the Chili area, "You are not representing us. America was founded on self-rule. Something is not above board here. There must be an ulterior motive."
That motive, Grottke reasoned, was the United Nation's [url=http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/documents/agenda21/index.htm]Agenda 21 plan[/url].
"It is beginning to look more and more like the Hammer and Sickle," Grottke noted, referring to communist principles.
Planning and Zoning administrator Steve Kunze downplayed concerns.
"There have been some interesting comments here tonight," he said, but stated their was no ulterior motive.
The main impetus for the proposed rewrite was a desire for better record keeping. New language requires a survey for parcels under 20 acres.
"The entire process of how a five-lot, or larger subdivision is created is identical to what is in the process," Kunze claimed, "There's three steps for creating a subdivision, those are exactly the same. Those have been in place for 40 years."
Planning opponent Clark Palmer, Town of Pine Valley, also spoke against the ordinance last night, noting one new provision would allow the county, with approval of the town, to take up to 10-percent of a subdivision to be dedicated for public use.
That provision was completely left up to the township, Kunze said.
The board voted 22-5 to postpone action on the matter until July.
READ IT YOURSELF:
[url=ttp://service.govdelivery.com/docs/WICLARK/WICLARK_365/WICLARK_365_20071019_en.pdf]Proposed ordinance (.pdf)[/url]
Feel free to contact us with questions and/or comments.