Those doing business in Lima — and, more importantly, those not yet there — are about to get a refresher on compromise with City Council.

Anger over a proposed casino, a police shooting and, most recently, the prayer duel between Councilman Tom Tebben and Councilman Tommy Pitts might dilute the memory. Compromise, at least as Tebben and Council President John Nixon define it, goes like this:

The administration proposes stripping property owners of their rights in favor of city-appointed central planners. It’s for the greater good and all, so the people who own the property, pay the taxes on it and even provide jobs must surrender to the central planners’ vision. Lacking the progressive vision of some anointed officials, some property owners might protest. Tebben the Democrat and Nixon the Republican (Ohio Republicans lacking the conservative part of “conservative principals”) will call compromise any point they can reach between socialism and capitalism.

Last year, Tebben and Amy Sackman Odum, Lima’s community development manager, led the charge to ban billboards in the city. Their compromise with Lamar Outdoor Advertising took away an outright ban and replaced it with severe restrictions. Their newest endeavor takes in a lot more than one billboard company.

Now they’re focusing on the land along Lima’s main corridors, starting with Bellefontaine Avenue/Market Street from Interstate 75 to Woodlawn Avenue.

City Council’s Planning, Building and Zoning Committee last week approved the administration’s recommended land-use policy. Council next will hold public hearings and a series of ordinances related to things such as landscaping and signage standards, The Lima News reported Wednesday.

“This is an economic issue,” Odum said. “It’s about making the city as attractive as possible to attract new dollars to the community. … The property owners along the corridor have been great and very supportive, but it’s also about the greater community and what kind of vision they have for the city over the next 25 years.”

She wants City Council to adopt her vision by July.

Tebben said he wants public input similar to that given in previous years. Hear from everyone before telling them what you’ve decided. We call it compromise. “It’s hard to argue with long-term planning on land use on a major corridor into the city,” Tebben said. “The devil is in the details and I want something this community can support.”

The devil is in believing officials who don’t own the property are going to come up with a 25-year plan for its use. The devil is in ignoring that, if property owners are so supportive of this version of Utopia, there’d be any need to force compliance.

Listening to the community would make sense. Keeping such prettiness regulations out of the way would make even more sense. Unfortunately for those who believe ownership means ownership, some in the business community — notably Lima’s two hospitals — support efforts to force centralized aesthetics on everyone else. St. Rita’s Medical Center and Lima Memorial Health System have made major investments to their campuses. However, to protect those investments, administration officials propose stealing ownership from everyone else.

Other business groups — most notably Downtown Lima Inc., which started the march to taking property rights — are on board. Uniform sign heights for new businesses are so much more important to attracting new business than lowering the crime rate or leveling the cost of  doing business in the city.

You don’t expect these coming regulations to affect anyone but new businesses, do you? Imagine the fight that would ensue if Public Works Director Howard Elstro brought out slides to show the number of Golden Arches in Allen County to justify the desire to tear down a McDonald’s sign on West Market Street. That’s how he played the number of American Freight signs countywide to justify limiting new billboards in the city.

The fight would be amusing but also likely would stop the administration’s and Tebben’s plans for Utopia, so the rules most likely will apply only to new businesses. Talk about economic development genius.

A business owner considering Lima would learn he faces a higher crime rate than in either the surrounding townships or other nearby municipalities. His employees would lose 1.5 percent more of their pay than if he opened across the street from the city. As a final bonus, he’ll find himself subject to rules that don’t apply to the neighbors. Jump at that chance.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 5th, 2008 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Columns. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.