“We die in our homes. It’s the same in Geauga County. There’s not a lot of turnover.” – Jim Duralia
On consecutive evenings, dozens of residents crammed into township halls in Auburn Township and adjoining Troy Township to protest the possible expansion of the Troy Oaks manufactured housing development in Troy near the Auburn Township line.
Armed with signed petitions, the residents urged Auburn trustees to ask Troy trustees to vote against expanding their township’s 208 sewer plan, which would allow 84 new manufactured homes on a 63- acre parcel Troy Oaks owners have purchased, said Jeanne Engel, who lives on the Auburn township side of Shaw Road.
Troy Oaks was originally developed in 1974 on 90 acres and has won several awards for its quality of homes and condition of the community, according to its website. It is located off U.S. Route 422 and Shaw Road, near Great Lakes Cheese and Saint-Gobain Crystals.
At the May 1 Auburn Township Trustees meeting, Engel told trustees, “I’m here to request your presence at tomorrow night’s Troy trustees meeting.”
She added she hoped trustees would use their influence on Troy trustees to vote against expansion of the sewer plan.
Trustee John Eberly, who said he had lived for 34 years in the house now owned by Engel, said, “This is a very serious issue, the expansion of the 208 plan. Once you break it, it’s less difficult to (break it again) in the future.”
Eberly said he would attend the Troy meeting, but would not try to influence trustees to break their existing 208 plan or change their zoning.
The parcel is currently zoned for single family homes on 3-acre lots, Engel said.
“We’re not in Troy,” Eberly said. “We’re a different political entity. We can’t tell them what to do, just like we don’t want them telling us what to do. We can speak to them and ask them to use common sense, but that’s it.”
He added, “If they were sitting in my meeting, I’d ask them what they’re doing here. We had a situation a couple of years back when people from Chester came here and tried to tell us how to run our township. We put a stop to that.”
At the May 2 Troy Township Trustees meeting, about 50 residents filled every seat, stood in every spot in the rear and lined the hallway outside the meeting room. Auburn trustees Eberly and Mike Troyan attended the meeting, but said little.
“The 208 plan is not even on the agenda,” Trustee Len Barcikoski said.
“I don’t care. We need to discuss it,” said Trustee Gerald Mitchell. “I’ve got lots of letters and phone calls on this.”
Mitchell asked Troy Zoning Inspector Joe McDougall a few minutes earlier, “If we ended the 208 proposal right now, would that circumvent everything the BZA (board of zoning appeals) is considering?”
McDougall answered the developers could put in another package sewage treatment plant.
Barcikoski said he had also received many letters from residents on the issue.
“The general consensus is that people on Shaw Road don’t want it,” the trustee said.
Mitchell said he would prefer to see more commercial development in the area, near Great Lakes Cheese.
Zoning Commission Alternate Jim Duralia told trustees he believes the zoning commission would prefer commercial development on the parcel and he doesn’t see the need for more housing developments in the community.
“The populace of Troy doesn’t move into other housing,” Duralia said. “We die in our homes. It’s the same in Geauga County. There’s not a lot of turnover.”
Engel showed trustees a pile of signed petitions opposing the Troy Oaks expansion.
“I live in Troy Oaks. It’s a nice community. We have young, we have old, we have middle aged. We have no problems,” Resident Joyce Kvacek said.
Troy Oaks manager Tom Learn said he started working there in 1986, “when we had 30 homes and Shaw Road was gravel over top of logs with only one entrance. I think Troy Oaks is a great community.”
Attorney Dave Weibel added, “This has to do with property rights. Our zoning laws protect our rights from special favors for one person. There is room there to expand already. There is no logical reason to change this now.”
Weibel added he is concerned about how a dense housing development will affect the water table.
“Eighty-three more homes will suck it up,” he told trustees.
Learn said the community now uses five wells and has never had issues with water availability.
“Look at our population. It’s actually declining, with young people producing (fewer children),” Trustee Ken Zwolinski said. “Where are the revenue dollars going to come from to support infrastructure? These are all things to consider.”
Weibel drew enthusiastic applause when he said, “One person is looking for an economic advantage over everyone else and it won’t stop.”
Shelby Hauenstein said if the parcel is rezoned, her house will be surrounded on three sides by manufactured homes in dense settings.
“We bought our house three years ago and it was zoned 3-acre residential,” Hauenstein said. “We were comfortable with that. This will surround our home. I have four kids. I trust my neighbors completely, but I don’t want 84 new ones.”
Learn assured the crowd development will happen over time, not overnight.
“The owners purchased (the property) in 2003 or 2004,” Learn said, adding one of the owners passed away five years ago and the owner’s wife now runs the community.
“She’s trying to rezone in case we want to put more homes in,” Learn said. “It will be very slowly developed.”
Barcikoski said the zoning commission will hold a public hearing on the re-zoning issue May 15 at 7 p.m.
“I have no idea when we’ll be voting,” Barcikoski said.
McDougall added, “The trustees can over-ride the zoning commission’s decision and the (Geauga) County Commissioners make the final decision on changing the 208 plan.”
No formal action was taken.
