Council voted to approve updating our Administrative Hearing Board that we already have in our City to expand the items that can be addressed to include some common zoning code violations. This benefits both the residents of the City by allowing items to handled by the administrative hearing board instead of requiring it to go before the municipal court. This allows the process to move faster and also means that violators do not have a criminal charge against them for a code violation to be addressed. This was approved by Council and the Law Department is working with the Planning Department to create a document that summarizes the process.
Another update to our zoning code was for the creation of a reasonable accommodation process if someone requires a variance based on a disability. This is something that the City would have to do anyways if someone requested a reasonable accommodation based on a disability, but by codifying the process there is transparency to the residents on how the process would work if they needed to use it along with reporting out to Council about the number of times this process is utilized for variances.
Council also referred 3 pieces of legislation to the Planning Commission for their review that would address additional car washes in the City prior to the expiration of the upcoming moratorium on car washes. The proposed updated language would limit car washes to C-5, Highway Services properties in the City along with limiting the number of car washes to one (1) per 10,000 residents of the City. This will go before Planning Commission at their meeting next week and will have a public hearing before Council on April 27th. I know this has been an on-going frustration with many residents in Stow, however, the increased number of car washes is not just happening in Stow, it is happening all across the area. Car washes seem to have a lower capital start up and lower on-going costs to operate so many more businesses and individuals are entering into the car wash business. While the moratorium on car washes was a short term solution, these new code changes should address the concern of over saturation of car washes in our City.
Council also made a minor change to posting locations for Council notices in the City. Our Charter requires 6 posting places, however, based on changes at a private business and access to our school buildings, Council has updated the language to remove school posting locations and private business posting locations and have added the Stow Senior Center. Posting locations now include the Library, City Hall, the Safety Building, Fire Stations No. 2 and 3, and the Senior Center.
Council also approved the hiring of a Human Resources Director in our City. It has been over 10 years since the City had a dedicated Human Resource Director and based on the number of employees we currently have it was agreed by both Council and the Administration that having a Human Resource Director will be a value add to serving our employees.
Council will next meet on Thursday March 23rd with Committee meetings starting at 5:30 PM.