The city of Truesdale continues to work with contractor Clarkson Construction to bring them into compliance with city ordinances as work has begun on the Improve I-70 project in Warren County.
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The city of Truesdale continues to work with contractor Clarkson Construction to bring them into compliance with city ordinances as work has begun on the Improve I-70 project in Warren County.
Robert Fry, vice president at Clarkson Construction, was present at the May 12 board of aldermen meeting and took questions about an updated site plan they had submitted to the city.
The city will be holding two public hearings on at 5:30 on May 21 and 5:15 on May 28 before the planning and zoning commission and the board of aldermen to discuss rezoning the former Good Game Sports Park property to an industrial planned development district to allow Clarkson to use the property as a new office and equipment storage facility.
Planned development districts allow municipalities to work with developers to create specific regulations outside of their existing zoning code in unique circumstances. During negotiations both sides would be expected to make concessions.
On the city’s side, Clarkson’s plan to store heavy equipment at the property would fall outside the acceptable uses of the property’s current C-2 commercial zoning and would require the PDI zoning change.
On Clarkson’s side, they have agreed at meetings to take a number of measures to prevent their development from impacting the adjacent neighborhood developments including a fence, as well as a berm with vegetation on the south side of the facility to shield it from view.
City Engineer John Choinka said at this time he could not recommend whether or not the city should approve the site plan as he needed more details. He said the city could approve the zoning and the site plan simultaneously and work out the details after the fact.
“My recommendation to the board was to do the rezoning first, because there’s not enough detail on the site plan to where I wouldn’t make a recommendation to approve it,” said Choinka. “So if the city wants to move forward with it, rezoning is the first step and I think it can be done together.”
Charlie Morrow, an attendee at the meeting and outspoken critic of the development, asked when a site plan would be available for review by citizens prior to the upcoming public hearings.
City Clerk Elsa Smith-Fernandez said they had copies of the site plan at city hall and Fry produced several he had brought to the meeting as well just in case anyone wanted to see them.
“I don’t have a problem showing you anything that we’ve done, and I’m trying to figure out what format you’d like to see. I’ve got copies of our site plan that we’ve submitted,” said Fry. “We’ve updated it because they’ve asked for some additional stuff on there, but we are not planning on keeping those trailers sitting out by the business.”
Fry has been clear about his willingness to work with the city and has already committed to the construction of the berm and additional vegetation and fencing to shield the facility from view.
He also said they had included a proposed walking trail behind the property on the site plan and were prepared to build part of that trail on their property as well.
“We would use an earthen berm so we can grow vegetation on it, and then we would plant trees on there to block the residents along the backside of the building. They also asked about a walking path, we have that on our site plan,” said Fry.
