UAPA's endorsed candidates win re-election

After waiting well over a month for certified election results and taking a break for holiday merriment, we can finally announce that UAPA's best-outcome election scenario won the day in UA's City Council race! A belated thank you to the UA progressive community for realizing the importance of this City Council race and coming out to vote. Our endorsed candidates, Mary Ann Krauss and Ed Seidel, were re-elected in a race that was very close.

Election Analysis

1. The progressive vote had a race-determining impact --- only one vote per precinct separated the candidates in 2nd and 3rd place and the candidates in 3rd and 4th place. Table 1 shows the official vote tallies.

2. Kingsdale was arguably the single biggest election issue. The election of Seidel, Krauss and Yassenoff, who all share a common mixed-use vision for Kingsdale, strongly suggests that voters believe the City has a responsibility to UA citizens to negotiate for the best possible use of this scarce, commercial property in the very heart of UA.

It wasn’t too long ago that the local Gahanna newspaper nicknamed city council meetings “the Tuesday night fights.” Because of dissention among council members and other factors, the community was fading fast. But a determined group of residents, elected officials and city administrators were able to find ways to cooperate and vitalize their city.

The result is the Creekside development, an innovative mix of commercial, retail and living spaces in downtown Olde Gahanna.

Why should Upper Arlington citizens care what happened on the other side of town? Because we have an opportunity to bring innovation to our own area by insisting that Kingsdale once again become a jewel in our city’s crown.

The Regency preliminary proposal is not forward thinking. It is not sensitive to the neighborhood. It requires 16 variances to accomplish. It will not increase city revenues, but will increase demand on city services.

Let’s make our voices heard

Gahanna’s path to being named one of the top 100 cities in the U.S. was not always smooth. But planners listened to public opinion (at one point holding 12 forums to hear what residents thought) and incorporated what they heard into their concepts for Creekside.

Update on Kingsdale. An email from the City's Chad Gibson.

From: Chad Gibson [mailto:cgibson@uaoh.net]
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 2:51 PM
To: [Recipients removed to protect privacy]
Subject: 11/26 BZAP Meeting Postponed

Dear Resident,

Please be advised that the special meeting of the Board of Zoning and Planning to hear the Kingsdale Preliminary Development Plan proposal has been postponed. Regency Centers, LLC has requested a delay until the New Year, per a letter received from its legal representative Smith and Hale LLC on Friday, November 16, 2007, which reads as follows:

"As you know, Regency and the City Staff are currently working on the Regency proposal for the redevelopment of Kingsdale to make the final plan for the center a "win-win" for both the City and Regency. We appreciate the City's efforts to date but after discussions with City staff and their planning consultant, we feel that further study is warranted to investigate the possibility of adding a mixed-use component into the plan. Therefore, because we believe it is beneficial to continue to work with the City, Regency respectfully requests that the hearing before BZAP scheduled for November 26 be tabled or held over to the next BZAP hearing date in January.

Past Newsletter Issues - 2007-2010

UAPA sends a periodic e-newsletter to our members. These issues date from 2007-2010.

Six former Upper Arlington’s mayors, Republicans and Democrats, joined together to write a letter to UA citizens about the upcoming election!

If there was ever a year for UAPA members to vote in a City Council election, this is it.

Figure 1: 70 ft of big-box retail store side wall. Regency has proposed a 360 ft side wall of Target facing Northwest Blvd.

Kingsdale represents one of the largest commercial sites in Upper Arlington - 38 acres close to the geographic center of the City --- and accounts for over 10% of all commerial real estate in UA.

Responsible economic development is the key to enabling Upper Arlington to maintain its high standards of service and keeping our community a wonderful place to live. But UA faces some challenges common to other “First Ring” suburbs:

• Built out – no room to grow
• Aging infrastructure
• Limited commercial base
• Declining federal & state support

Especially acute among these is UA's very limited commercial base (see Figure 2). With fewer UA-based businesses and fewer workers paying income taxes, UA relies more heavily on property taxes, than surrounding suburbs (see Figure 4).

So how commercial properties such as Kingsdale get redeveloped is critical to economic development.

Progressive viewpoint:

To better the quality of life for Upper Arlington residents, the city must carefully guide the development of commercial and industrial property. Progressives want to increase revenue from commercial property, to keep property taxes down. The way to reach the goal is through careful planning and implementation, as well as actively seeking innovative partnerships with the private sector. It will not be achieved by passively waiting for new, unwise development to enrich the city.

Issue Background

UAPA agrees with the UA Public Library’s philosophy that “…everyone matters and is respected.“ And we support its goal, which is “…to have an unbiased collection representing many points of view…”

However, in Upper Arlington, there is a growing intolerance of others’ views by a small, vocal minority influenced by outgoing Council member Tim Rankin. One of the most egregious examples is the 2005 dispute about the distribution of gay publications at the Upper Arlington Public Library. A group of conservatives tried to sway the Library Board with the claim they were protecting children.

To help fill the need for a forum covering a broad array of topics, UAPA helped facilitate the creation of the Candidates' Night 2007 meeting coming up this Wednesday, Oct 24th from 7-9 p.m. in the UA Municipal Building, 3600 Tremont Road.

It started with an idea to work with a UA High School student, Deanna Hunt, to create the forum as her Senior project. Once Deanna was on board, the non-partisan group, Leadership UA, graciously agreed sponsor the event and guide Deanna through the process.

The evening includes details on the pending Schools levy, a chance to hear from and ask questions of the three School Board candidates (for three seats) and the five City Council candidates (for three seats). Call 487-8131 for additional details.