January 27, 2011
State of the City
Barney reviews changes, challenges By CHRIS BOURNEA ThisWeek Community Newspapers
By Paul Vernon/ThisWeek
Upper Arlington City Manager Virginia Barney delivers the State of the City Address at the Upper Arlington Municipal Services Center on Jan. 24. Prior to the address, an expo was held in the lobby allowing local organizations and residents to mingle.
In her final State of the City address before her planned retirement at the end of the year, Upper Arlington city manager Virginia Barney reviewed the city’s accomplishments over the past year and looked ahead to goals and challenges the city will face this year. The transformation of the Kingsdale Shopping Center and the opening of the new Giant Eagle Market District has become one of the biggest economic drivers in the city. “The Market District project has exceeded both anticipated construction value and our projections for staffing and payroll,” Barney said. The next phase of Kingsdale redevelopment, which will continue throughout 2011 and in years to come, will include office space and additional retail uses. A 10-year review of the city’s master plan, which was adopted in 2001, is currently under way. The purpose of the review, Barney said,
is “to ensure our long-term goals are on track with community sentiment and that we have the necessary tools in place to help us on that path.” Barney noted several facilities improvements that have taken place around the city in recent years. “Just a few months ago, thanks to the hard work of the Upper Arlington Community Foundation and its donors, we gathered again at Sunny 95 Park to celebrate the beginnings of the new Amelita Mirolo Barn, which promises to be the premier indoor recreational facility within our park system,” Barney said. The opening of Fire Station 72 at 3861 Reed Road in December 2009 was one of the biggest highlights of the past year, Barney said. “Station 72 has been recognized nationally for its design and functionality, and for the project’s overall cost effectiveness when compared to new facilities in other communities,” she said. A series of road and underground infrastructure improvements will take place through the city’s Capital Improvements
Program, which allots $5-million annually. “This coming year the trend continues with several major projects readying to begin in March, as Arlington Avenue work is completed and in the Mallway, the first phase of a Waltham Road reconstruction project begins, and Fishinger Road is scheduled reconstruction and installation of a new sidewalk between Five Points and Kenny Road,” Barney said. A review of the city’s economic development efforts through 2009 show a return on investment of $2 and 84 cents for every dollar spent. “Approximately 11 percent of our total income tax revenue was generated through economic development incentive agreements,” Barney said. “Ten of our top 255 income tax payers have been assisted by our program, of which five were new to the community.” The city has been able to maintain a Triple A credit rating since 2008 and continued to secure alternate funding opporSee CITY, page A6
Vacation ordinance fails to pass as emergency legislation By CHRIS BOURNEA
nual vacation accrual rate, but
ThisWeek Community Newspapers would lose any vacation time be-
Instead of passing emergency legislation Jan. 24 to reduce the amount of vacation time city employees can accrue, Upper Arlington City Council ultimately chose to give the legislation the standard three readings. The ordinance would allow full-time city employees hired before Jan. 1, 2011, to accrue 80 hours of vacation time after one year of continuous service and up to 160 hours after 13 years of continuous service. After 13 years, employees could earn an additional eight hours of vacation time per year for each additional three years of continuous service. Under the ordinance, employees hired after Jan. 1, 2011, could accrue 80 hours of vacation time after one year of continuous service and 120 hours after five years. The main change to the city’s current vacation policy has to do with capping the amount of vacation time city employees can carry over. Under the ordinance, each full-time employee would be allowed to carry over vacation time at three times their an-
yond that unless they use it before the end of the year. Council president Frank Ciotola and members Wade Steen, David DeCapua, Ed Seidel and Erik Yassenoff voted to pass the ordinance as emergency legislation, while vice president Mary Ann Krauss and Debbie Johnson voted against it. Johnson and Krauss said they think council should wait until the city completes a compensation study this spring before passing the ordinance. “I think we are making policy ahead of time,” Johnson said. Since emergency legislation requires six votes to pass, the ordinance will automatically require two more readings and a 30-day waiting period to be enacted, said city attorney Jeanine Amid Hummer. Any employees hired before the ordinance is enacted would not be affected by it. City manager Virginia Barney said the city has begun the process of screening applicants for two positions in the utilities division and will let them know
By Lorrie Cecil/ThisWeek
Susie Underwood, studio program coordinator at the Columbus Museum of Art, stands by part of Wickliffe Progressive Community School’s art project, which is on display at the museum as part of CMA’s Creative Classroom Series.
Wickliffe exhibition on view at CMA through March By KATE HETRICK
Maureen Reedy, Wickliffe’s
ThisWeek Community Newspapers elementary instructional spe-
Jessica Partridge, a Wickliffe fifth-grader in Elizabeth Glover’s classroom, poses in front of the Freedom Center Project, on display at the Columbus Museum of Art.
The Columbus Museum of Art hosted a reception for its new Creative Classroom Series earlier this month, officially opening an exhibition featuring the work of students at Wickliffe Progressive Community School.
cialist, says she’s been thinking about the reception ever since. “I have been thinking about it every day,” she said. “I have to say it was one of the highlights of my teaching career.” See WICKLIFFE, page A2
See VACATION, page A2
Fire station award given at regular BZAP meeting By ANDREW MILLER ThisWeek Community Newspapers Zach Zettler, an architect involved in the design of the Reed Road fire station, presented local officials with the “Fire Chief Magazine” Station Style Design/Silver Award in the shared facilities category at the Jan. 18 meeting of the Upper Arlington Board of Planning and Zoning.
On hand to accept the award were fire chief Jeff Young, development director Dean Sivinski and BZAP chairman T.J. Riley. “Through the hard work of CR Architecture, we now have an award-winning facility that will make the community proud for another 50, 75 or maybe 100 years,” said Young, accepting the award. Zettler said the project was a col-
laborative effort between BZAP, the firefighters and the design team. “This award is truly a credit to the board for pushing us all on the design.” Following the presentation of the award, the board considered several residential zoning requests. Ed Overmyer of Stonehaven Place requested an additional 6.36 percent of hardscape development cover, beyond the 19.78 percent allowed by code.
Chad Gibson, city senior planner, granted a postponement of the request on behalf of the owners until the Feb. 22 meeting to allow for additional design changes to be reviewed by city staff. Chris Gempel of Henthorn Road sought variances for the reconstruction of his garage, including a second-story addition and a connection to the principal residence. The variances would
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allow for a side yard setback encroachment of 2.7 feet into the 8 foot minimum and the second-story will cause the garage to project into the 1.6 rear profile coefficient, used to define building height established for the zoning district. City staff recommended approval to these variances after an informal viewSee BZAP, page A2