WestChesterBuzz.com

The West Chester Township Land Use Planning Committee and the West Chester Township Zoning Commission will host a joint meeting on March 18 from 5:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. to accept public comment on proposed updates to the West Chester Comprehensive Land Use Plan.

The regularly scheduled Zoning Commission meeting will follow, starting at 6:30 p.m. The zoning meeting could attract a crowd, as it currently has a proposed shopping center, which would be near a residential area, on its agenda.

The shopping center, Crossings of Beckett, would be anchored by a Kroger Marketplace and be located near the intersection of Tylersville and 747. WestChesterBuzz.com will have more on the development before and after the meeting on March 18.

Residents, concerned about the Land Use Plan, can see the revisions at www.WestChesterOH.org and at the West Chester Township Community Development Department, 9577 Beckett Road, Suite 100, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.

When recommending its changes, The Land Use Planning Committee takes into consideration each corridor, current land use designations, road projects and changes in terms of development since the previous document was adopted, according to Barbara Wilson, public information officer for West Chester Township.

The Land Use Planning Committee is a seven-member volunteer board composed of West Chester residents appointed by the Board of Trustees. The Committee ultimately takes the proposed Land Use Plan to the West Chester Board of Trustees for adoption.

The last Land Use Plan was last updated in 2004.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Barb Wilson, Barbara Wilson, revisions to West Chester's Land Use Plan, West Chester Zoning Commission, West Chester's Land Use Plan, West Chester’s Land Use Planning Committee, zoning commission

West Chester’s Land Use Planning Committee has been working since May 2011 to update the community’s Comprehensive Land Use Plan, which was last updated in 2004.

The Land Use Planning Committee is a seven-member volunteer board composed of West Chester residents appointed by the Board of Trustees.

During updates to the plan, the committee meets regularly to approve new language, confers with interested property owners to consider their views and holds public forums to obtain resident feedback. The Committee ultimately takes the proposed Land Use Plan to the West Chester Board of Trustees for adoption.

According to Barbara Wilson, public information officer for West Chester Township, current revisions being considered reflect changes in demographic information, new developments that have occurred since 2004 including park development, and road improvements occurring since 2004 including U.S. Route 42 and Liberty Way.

A complete copy of the Comprehensive Land Use Plan with proposed revisions is available at www.WestChesterOH.org. Feedback on the proposed revisions will be accepted in writing until May 14. Comments can be made through email at landuseplan@westchesteroh.org.

A joint public hearing of the Land Use Planning Committee and the Zoning Commission will take place Monday, March 18th at West Chester Township Hall. The purpose of the public hearing will be to present proposed revision, receive public comment and hear discussion from the commission and committee members.

Another public hearing will be scheduled for the Land Use Planning Committee offering further opportunity for public comment. This hearing is tentatively scheduled Tuesday, April 15.

The West Chester Board of Trustees will also have a public hearing on the revisions on May 14, prior to Board action scheduled for May 28. Revisions to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan require Board of Trustee approval.

Posted in: Government, News |

Tags: Tags: Barb Wilson, Barbara Wilson, revisions to West Chester's Land Use Plan, West Chester Zoning Commission, West Chester's Land Use Plan, West Chester’s Land Use Planning Committee, zoning commission

Some of the Lady Liberty mascots pose in front of the West Chester location. Photo provided.

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

The fight to put Lady Liberty back out on a busy street corner in West Chester Township next tax season isn’t over.

The 12th District Court of Appeals has ruled against Liberty Tax Service’s “waver,” saying West Chester gave the company a fair shake in hearings to decide whether the mascot was allowed under the township’s sign code.

Appeals judges sent the case back to Butler County Common Pleas Court to decide whether the waver dressed like the Statue of Liberty constituted protected speech.

On Tuesday, the company’s lawyer asked the appeals court to take another look at the case before the constitutionality question is broached.

“We think they are simply wrong on the law, with all due respect,” said Anthony Covatta, who represents Liberty Tax franchisees Kyle and Lorraine Garth.

The gist of the court filing is that the 12th District should have decided whether the West Chester Board of Zoning Appeals even had authority to rule on a sign variance for the Liberty Tax Service mascot before deciding if the township’s zoning process was properly applied.

Covatta maintains that the waver was not a sign as defined by the township zoning code, so the zoning appeals board didn’t have any authority to decide the case. Last week’s decision also conflicts with a decision in the Sixth District Court of Appeals in Toledo, Covatta contends.

The sign battle between the Garths and West Chester began in late 2009, soon after the Garths opened their Liberty Tax Service franchise in a strip center at the southwest corner of Tylersville and Cox roads.

The Garths say their costumed waver isn’t a sign and that West Chester’s sign regulations violated his right to commercial free speech. The wavers are considered Liberty Tax’s primary marketing tool.

West Chester officials say costumed characters as advertising are banned by the zoning code.

Posted in: Business, News |

Tags: Tags: Barb Wilson, Barbara Wilson, Kyle Garth, Lady Liberty mascot, Liberty Tax mascot, Liberty Tax Service, West Chester business, West Chester business news, West Chester jobs

A Liberty Tax Service mascot is a familiar sight around town. This one is outside a location in Erlanger, Ky. Photo provided.

Sheila McLaughlin reports:

Is the Lady Liberty mascot that waves customers into Liberty Tax Service considered a sign?

The township thinks it is. The business’ owner says that’s bunk. And a man familiar with signage issues nationwide says he has never heard of such a dispute.

Wade Swormstedt of Kenwood, publisher/editor of Signs of the Times magazine for the on-premise sign industry, said, “I don’t really know of a legal precedent one way or another on that – anywhere.” But, Swormstedt said, the situation seems to indicate continued resistance to unconventional signage, bucking a national trend toward relaxing signage restrictions.

“With the economy doing so poorly, the signs make a difference,” he said, by boosting business and bringing in more tax revenue.

The Lady Liberty battle began almost three years ago. In 2010, the tax service received a $500 ticket for violating township sign regulations. Now the case is at Ohio’s 12th District Court of Appeals in Middletown, which could take weeks to release a decision that could be precedent-setting for an eight-county area including all except Hamilton County.

Co-owner of the Liberty franchise in West Chester, Kyle Garth, says the township’s sign restrictions violate his right to commercial free speech. Liberty’s locations in other Southwest Ohio communities aren’t facing problems because of their costumed “wavers,” he said. “This is our No. 1 marketing tool. It’s really, honestly killing my business. I should be double where I’m at right now,” Garth said about the township’s decision to keep the “wavers” off the congested roadside.

Garth and his wife, Lorriane, who live in nearby Mason, opened the franchise in late 2009 in a strip center at the southwest corner of Tylersville and Cox roads. Liberty Tax Service has 4,000 offices in the United States and Canada; it’s the nation’s second-largest tax preparer, behind H & R Block.

West Chester is the Garths’ sole location. Other franchisees run several offices. “This has been going on since the first or second week we were in business in West Chester Township. They told me flat out it is ‘dirtying up our community,’” Garth said. “We don’t have this problem in any other part of the state. Nowhere.”

“Wavers” dressed like the Statue of Liberty are part of Liberty Tax Service’s branding, Garth said. If he could, he would hire three to five mascots who would be paid $8 an hour and would receive a bonus depending on what kind of a show they put on for traffic. (more…)

Posted in: Business, News |

Tags: Tags: Barb Wilson, Barbara Wilson, Kyle Garth, Lady Liberty mascot, Liberty Tax mascot, Liberty Tax Service