By Douglass Dowty

A developer affiliated with Wal-Mart Corp. has approached the city about annexing property just south of town, exerting pressure on city and township officials to finalize a revenue-sharing agreement that could spur new development in the area.

The developer holds an option on township land at the junction of Route 58 and U.S. Route 20, across from the Lorain County Joint Vocational School.

“The corner has the potential to develop commercially,” Pittsfield Township Clerk Jim McConnell said. “The new agreements allow for it under controlled parameters.”

The plan being hammered out by city and township officials includes a revised growth plan for the U.S. 20 corridor, including zoning and design standards as well as a streamlined revenue-sharing formula.

Though no official proposal has been floated, Oberlin City Manager Robert DiSpirito said that it is in the city’s best interest to play an active role in the development.

The township has already zoned ten acres of the site as commercial. “Something could be built right now,” he said. “It would not be required to meet the city’s building and design standards.”

The city’s influence over the development comes down to sewage.

“The key is the sewer,” McConnell said. “The only way to connect to the sewer is if the land is annexed by the city.”

DiSpirito said that a development could be executed using rural septic tanks to handle waste, but McConnell said that the developer had ruled out that possibility.

The township and city are working on a joint plan that would set design standards and a revenue sharing formula if the site were annexed by the city.

“We knew we would have to deal with this sooner or later,” McConnell said. “If this has to happen, it will be done under acceptable parameters. At this point, it is still township land.”

“We are close to an agreement,” DiSpirito said. “But there are still some things that need to be
worked out.”

The final decision on annexation will come from the county, which draws up municipal
boundaries.

“The developer could petition the Board of Commissioners any day,” DiSpirito said. “They would send a letter to city council, but ultimately it is up to them. Our agreement with Pittsfield is to determine if the site was latched onto the city, that the township wouldn’t oppose it and the city would be able to provide services.”

“It’s almost like war reparations,” he added.

Even with all the hurdles, DiSpirito acknowledged that construction could begin within the year if things went smoothly.

City council president William Jindra said that public opinion is mixed on the prospect of new development.

“Response has been pretty varied,” he said. “I’ve heard everything from people who want to buy cheap goods locally to those morally opposed to Wal-Mart, to concerns of what this will do to the downtown.”

But Oberlin is not strictly opposed to the site, as it was for a previous proposal to develop the local Gott farm into a 400,000-acre development with three megastores, five restaurants, and a hotel.

“That was right in the middle of a neighborhood,” DiSpirito explained.

“There is a section of the steering committee that would like to have development,” Jindra added.

Though Pittsfield Township is negotiating with Oberlin on growth plans, the township trustees are still officially against development at the site.

“At our last work session, it is till our position at this point in time to oppose commercial development,” McConnell said. “The corner is zoned agricultural except for the ten acres, and we are not in favor of changing that.”

At the same time, the two parties are both aware that development may be inevitable. In fact, much of the planning for the south side of town began before the Wal-Mart proposal surfaced.

“We began this process in the steering committee to form a set of protections,” DiSpirito said.

Both McConnell and DiSpirito acknowledge that times have changed and large-scale commercial development will probably happen at some point in the near future. An enhanced set of regulations, combining city and township regulations, is an important preparation for that time, both said.

“This way, whether we have Wal-Mart or not, we have planning,” DiSpirito said.

In 1991, the city and township drew up the first revenue-sharing agreement to facilitate the annexation of the land used to build the Ames department store.

The first document commented on the “real estate property in the township and directly south of the city having the potential for economic development” and the necessity of the agreement as “reasonable and necessary to serve the interests of the residents of both jurisdictions.”

The agreement went on to stipulate that the township would receive, among other things, 50 percent of the real estate and personal tax revenue from developments on the annexed land over 12 years.

Though the agreement spans 20 years, the new accords are much more comprehensive and include design and quality standards, as well as aesthetic appeal.

“This is a reality we have to face,” McConnell said. “This is not to endorse Wal-Mart or anyone else.”

DiSpirito said that there has been no timetable set to complete the talks.

The College has not taken a position on the development, and President Nancy Dye was unavailable for comment.