Published: September 11, 2008 11:46 pm            

Greene man forms property rights PAC

Effort aims to gather support against zoning, planning

SWITZ CITY — A Greene County man hopes to use the November election as a way to influence elected county officials not to implement zoning and land-use controls.

Otis J. Russell, 59, of Switz City has formed a political action committee, or PAC, called Citizens for Property Rights, the first such local committee in Greene County, said Nancy West, a deputy clerk in the county’s voter registration office. The committee officially filed June 18.

Since late last year, community officials began working on an 18-month process to adopt a Greene County Comprehensive Plan, a precursor for a county planning commission and department, which can adopt countywide zoning.

A 60-member Greene County Plan Steering Committee is working to formulate the plan, which would include a plan to enhance tourism. The Greene County Economic Development District also is working to create and adopt an I-69 Corridor Plan, looking at future economic development measures to attract firms connected with the Naval Surface Warfare Center, Crane Division.

Several public meetings have already been conducted, with more planned before final public hearings in November or December. Greene County’s Board of Commissioners is scheduled to vote on whether to adopt a county comprehensive plan in early January.

Two of the three elected seats on that board are up for election in November.

And that’s where Russell has set his sights to influence voters.

On Sept. 1, Russell started a Web site — www.notozoning.com — to garner support against zoning and planning in Greene County and about 1,300 Greene County residents already have signed an online petition against the idea, he said.

“This group is against the imposition of any land-use controls in Greene County and we will try to impact the election and make the candidates answer to the voters, because by far the majority of the voters in this county don’t want it,” Russell said.

“Our objective is a political solution, rather than attend meetings. We want our members to become a cohesive voting block to take a stand for property rights for people, because we don’t believe zoning is necessary or desirable or wanted by a majority of the people,” he said.

“We are against zoning just on the basis that we don’t feel that government should have the right to tell property owners what to do with their property, except for violations of criminal law and public health. We are also against it, because in a rural county, like Greene County, zoning makes no real sense,” he said.

Russell said Indiana law does not provide for a referendum on comprehensive plans, saying public hearings on proposed plans do not provide a determining vote on the issue. Instead, people’s opinion can be shown in electing officials who agree with the PAC’s viewpoint.

Joan Bethell, executive director of the Greene County Economic Development District, said public input on comprehensive plans helps build a consensus on how the county can develop in the future.

Bethell said planning has been tried before and “apparently there was a lot of misinformation that was propagated and I think this has left some of the local residents with what I believe are unfounded fears. I am hoping that as we go through the process and we make apparent to the public what it is the steering committee has proposed,” citizens will see a benefit to the county, she said.

Bethell said a county comprehensive plan “is a protection mechanism. One of the main things I heard when I first came here is that we are rural and we want to keep it that way. Although the residents want to see industrial development and other types of development, they don’t want to be overrun and become nothing more than a suburb to a larger metropolitan area that may be close by,” she said.

“In order to do that, one of the best mechanisms to protect yourself is land-use planning. If we don’t plan our own future, somebody else will. I look at it as that it is the most effective means of ensuring our rural integrity and at the same time, encouraging investment in the community.

“It is difficult and challenging on the economic development level to get outside investment without being able to ensure the protection of that investment,” Bethell said. “More than anything, this is to plan effectively for the type of future that Greene County residents have expressed that they desire.”

The comprehensive plan helps form a future vision for the county expressed in goals, objectives, principles, policies and guidelines, she said.

The EDC’s work on an I-69 corridor plan came from a $150,000 planning grant from the Indiana Department of Transportation. The city of Linton and town of Bloomfield filed a joint grant application for that money.

Russell said he thinks officials have not considered costs of starting a county planning commission or department. He said Citizens for Property Rights plans to endorse candidates by the end of this month, then work to get those candidates elected.

While no endorsements have yet been made, Russell said he supported Republican Nathan L. Abrams for the District 2 seat on the Board of Commissioners in the May primary election. Abrams won his party’s nomination and is on the November ballot.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com

        

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