Tuesday evening, Circleville Council joined opposition to a new housing development.
Residents of Heathergreen Village, northwest of the city on Stoutsville Pike, filled the audience, and spoke against a housing development planned to extend from their condominium neighborhood.
Councilman Barry Keller explained the issue is a plan of 50 rental units for low- to moderate-income housing.
Residents pointed out problems with drainage, and water pressure and other utilities and services stretched thin...and potential problems with traffic and property values.
Although it's just outside of the city limits, the city has the right to oppose it because it's in-part, publicly funded.
Keller says this is not about gentrification. He says there is plenty of low-income housing, some being built now - but the city needs more moderate and high-income housing, as stated in the city's latest bond rating.
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Circleville moved closer to joining forces with the county.
Councilman Barry Keller explains that the city has been long considering combining their first-responder dispatching with Pickaway County's.
The city now dispatches only city police and city fire, and land-line 9-1-1 calls. But he says 90% of 9-1-1 calls are now on cell phone, which route to the county's center, and then need to be re-reouted to the city.
Council toured the PSAP, or "Public Safety Access Point," two weeks ago. They authorized the mayor to start negotiations to combine the dispatching.
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Council member Julie Strawser saw an ordinance passed to assess owners of properties where the city had to mow overgrown yards and clean lots.
Kevin Coleman regularly reports on Chillicothe & Circleville councils and local culture
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