GETGO REDUX?

Highland Heights residents anxiously await developer Lance Osborne’s next move after the mega GetGo rezoning issue failed. Will he negotiate or litigate?

Happy New Year!

I was traveling and busy tending to family matters, which distracted me from many normal activities last fall---including writing this blog.

But it’s a new year and I’m back in the saddle.

I have to say that I felt very lucky to be out of Ohio during the last few weeks before the November election----and not just because I missed Hurricane Sandy’s nasty weather.
It was delightful to be able to watch television without being assaulted by torrents of political advertising, and equally wonderful to escape the muck propagated by all those ideologically-driven super PACs.

Although I was out of town, I kept close tabs on the GetGo rezoning issue.

For those of you who missed the results, 5205 Highland residents voted on election day.
Issue 58, the GetGo rezoning issue, passed citywide by 552 votes, however voters in 3 precincts (Wards 1-B, 4-A and 4-B) rejected it outright.

Pursuant to our city Charter, the Ward 4 vote decided the issue. 
Out of a total 1255 votes counted, 775 Ward 4 voters turned thumbs down on developer Lance Osborne’s plan to install a gasoline and diesel dispensing,16 pump mega GetGo gas station and convenience store, huge plastic overhead canopy and two 6-by-18 foot LED display ground signs on the former Catalano’s grocery store property.

View the election results: http://boe.cuyahogacounty.us/pdf_boe/en-US/ElectionResults2012/Nov2012/11062012officialResultsbyPrecinctTotals.HTM

There’s been a lot of speculation about what Osborne’s next move will be.

Osborne stood to make a ton of money from the purchase/lease back deal he had worked out with Giant Eagle for the Catalano’s property, but that deal hinged on the mega GetGo gas station.
With so much money on the table, residents wonder:

Will Osborne do the right thing and respect the will of Highland Heights voters---or will he engage in a sour-grapes attempt to force a mega GetGo gas station down their throats?

A December 11th Council executive session---held to discuss unspecified “pending imminent litigation”---could be one clue as to Osborne’s intentions.

Months before the November election, a city insider voiced their belief that Osborne would sue the city if the GetGo zoning issue failed.
Rumors are flying that he’s threatened to do just that.

How ironic.

When pitching his mega GetGo development plan to residents at public meetings before the election, Osborne always made sure to mention that he, himself, was a Highland Heights resident.
I was never quite sure what message Osborne was trying to send. Maybe:

Trust me, I’m one of you?

If the rumors are true, residents will have to wonder whether Osborne’s residency claims were actually a veiled threat. Was his real message:

 
Give me what I want or, trust me, I’ll sue you?

I sincerely hope that’s not the case.
How disappointing for the city to be sued by someone who used his Highland Heights residency to sell himself to the residents.

At a post-election, November 11th Council meeting, Former Councilman Sam Paternite spoke for many residents when he told Council:

“Now that the GetGo issue has been settled, I think it is time for Council to be pro-active on the Catalano’s property.

The Supreme Court has given the city the ability to do that---to take the property by eminent domain. The city should make Giant Eagle offer they can’t refuse: either sell the property with restrictions or the city will take it without restrictions…

We can’t let Giant Eagle hold the city hostage just because it wants a GetGo there.

If we just sit they will come at us, suing us trying to overrule the Ward 4 veto.

We can’t go another 7 years letting the (Catalano’s) property sit there…”

In last week’s Sun Messenger, Council President Cathy Murphy agreed with Paternite’s call for the city to be proactive. She said:

 “…we have to seize the opportunity to get something done this year to develop that corner. …I want to pursue development there without a gas station…
It is a vital corner…What’s important now is that we continue the dialogue because there is an opportunity there.”
http://www.cleveland.com/hillcrest/index.ssf/2013/01/highland_heights_officials_loo.html#incart_river

Council is a legislative body. It is not Council’s role to negotiate with commercial property owners and developers.
That role belongs to someone else----the city’s chief executive officer---the mayor.

I think it’s high time for Mayor Coleman---who has been remarkably quiet---to step forward and assume leadership on the issue.

The first thing he needs to do: sit down with Giant Eagle representatives and find out whether Giant Eagle intends to sell the Catalano’s property---as they told Council, a year ago, Giant Eagle would do if it a mega GetGo gas station wasn’t installed there.
If Giant Eagle has changed its mind, the mayor owes it to residents to work with Giant Eagle (and maybe developer Osborne as well) to come up with a new “development plan B” for Catalano’s--one that doesn’t involve rezoning it for gas station use.
The city has offered economic incentives in the past, to foster business growth and expansion in the city.
Maybe it’s time for Mayor Coleman to take that tool out of the shed, sharpen it up, and use it once again.

It's time for the mayor to do something---anything—except sit on the sidelines.