When it comes to determining the facts about a rezone request for a parcel of land, it is unfortunate that there seems to be much confusion about what an elected official or an appointed board member is expected to consider as factual. For instance, as Planning Commissioner, Tim Luscher explained to the State Journal, (reported on July 28, 2022), “A finding of fact does not mean it is a fact…It could be factual or not factual. In the case of not voting for a finding of fact means we did not want it out as part of the evidence.” In what universe can a fact “be factual or not factual”?
An example of the misrepresentation of the facts took place during the hearing on Thursday June 9, 2022, for 690 Duncan Road when the Planning Commission (PC) voted that the subject property was not adjacent to an industrial park, even though they clearly had the maps and knew it was surrounded by industrial zones to the east, west and north in Franklin County. That is not how a planning commission appointed by the Mayor and Judge Executive should conduct business on behalf of our community. To not recognize this as a fact was wrong by all accounts, and we should expect more from our commissioners Cross, Luscher, May, Looney, and Sweger.
It would be one thing if the planning commissioners had to figure out the accuracy of the data for the subject property for themselves, but this is not the case. To facilitate the process, Robert Hewitt (Director, Franklin County Planning and Building Codes) and his team conducted an in-depth analysis of the subject property to determine the pros and cons of a zone change and ultimately provided a recommendation to the Planning & Zoning Commission. In the case of 690 Duncan Road, the county staff’s recommendation was to PASS the rezone request from Agriculture District (AG) to Industrial General District (IG) and was supported with rationale based on 6 Findings of Fact. Despite the recommendation, the commission came up with some of their own Findings of Fact, many of which were untrue and others that were not relevant, and subsequently, denied the request to rezone Duncan Rd from Agricultural (AG) to Industrial (IG).
The next step in the process, on Monday August 22nd, was for Fiscal Court to either accept the Planning Commission’s denial of the rezone or identify their own “Findings of Fact” in evaluating the rezone request for 690 Duncan Rd. Fortunately, the Fiscal Court chose to reject the PC’s denial to rezone and came up with their own “Findings of Fact” in their first reading. However, despite having the benefit of studying the PC’s hearing, materials and discussion on the subject property, the Fiscal Court didn’t seem to fully understand the importance of identifying relevant facts. Squire Mueller determined that an appropriate Finding of Fact was that the 2016 Comprehensive Plan (update) stated that there are 600 acres of industrial property and 250 acres of commercial property available in Franklin County. While that was a true statement at one time, it is completely irrelevant because the data was presumably gathered in 2016, six years ago as an update to the comprehensive plan. The fact is that, with a little research, Squire Mueller would have determined that 600 acres of IG and 250 acres of AG were entered into the original Comprehensive Plan which was written in January 2001 (page 14), over 20 years ago. His Finding of Fact was entirely irrelevant, misleading and doesn’t reflect the current inventory of available Industrial or Commercial land.
To make matters worse, the other court members voted to include this 20-year-old data point into the Findings of Fact, despite the testimony included in the PC transcript/video that was supposed to have been watched by all court members prior to this meeting.
As part of the Findings of Fact that would allow a zone change, the Fiscal Court should have acknowledged that the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map has designated the subject property as a future employment center for the last 19 years and that the IG zone is appropriate for an Employment Center Land Use Designation, which supports the rezone request for Duncan Rd.
Our elected officials have ample resources to learn from the professionals on staff to clearly understand facts, issues, and processes. We need to expect our elected officials to come prepared, be transparent and make responsible decisions that impact our community for years to come. Our community deserves better!
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