City Council - public_hearing

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. The time is 6 p.m. on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026. We are at the Twinsburg Government Center, and I'm going to call the public hearing to session. Shannon, please call the roll.

Mr. Bellin. I'm here. Mrs. Latney. Here. Mr. Post. Here. Mr. Castillo.

Here.

Mr. Panacci.

Here.

Mrs. Walker. Present. Mr. Furey. Here.

Here.

All right, next up on the agenda is audience participation for items on the agenda for the public hearing. Is there any audience participation this evening? Sure. The floor is yours. Please state your name and address.

Good evening. My name is Amy Best. I live at 2570 Post Road in Twinsburg, and I just have a brief statement. First of all, I do want to thank all of you for coming together for emergency meetings on our behalf to try to get this to ballot in November. So thank you to each of you. And to those that have reached out to us, we thank you for your support. Or care, I should say. We have lived in Twinsburg since 2005, specifically at 2570 Post Road since 2014. And we are proud Twinsburg residents, homeowners, taxpayers, and owners of a local small business that currently employs five Twinsburg residents, including our two sons and my husband and myself. We have invested our lives, our business, and our future in this community because we truly love living here. And we recently learned something we never imagined possible, that although our property has been used as a single-family home for 35 years, it is still zoned as a public facility, which you all know. This was not a mistake that we made. nor was it something that we could have reasonably discovered. The land was sold by the neighboring church in 1991. Our home was built, not by us, by the previous owners in between 91 and 92, and families have lived there ever since. The property has been bought, sold, financed, refinanced, insured, taxed, and listed by the county as a residence for decades. which our title company, we come to find out, that's the only thing that they check as far as zonings, is how the county has it listed. So we purchased our home in good faith in 2014, moving from another Tunsberg home to stay in this community, and it wasn't until we applied for this recent building permit that we learned the zoning had never been corrected. And to add insult to injury, our property was overlooked by the 18-month zoning study that was completed as part of the city's comprehensive zoning update that went before voters in 2024. Since then, we've spent hours researching records, gathering documents, speaking with professionals, and working with city staff, which we're very grateful for their support. Our project has been delayed, and we've been left with uncertainty actually about our home. Like, what if our septic tank fails? What if there's a fire? All of these questions. What if we need to move? So we understand that the city believes this matter must go before the voters, and we do respect the process. We are trying to be happy citizens and go along with it. However, we hope that everyone recognizes the unique position our family has been placed in. We are being asked to undertake a citywide campaign for our one property. And we have gotten feedback from people that we've talked to that they're not very in favor of rezoning if they don't know anything about it. So this is gonna require us trying to get the word out. for the November election. And it's not because we're proposing a new development or asking to change the character of a neighborhood, but because we're trying to correct a decades-old oversight that predates our ownership by more than 20 years. I hope everyone can appreciate that any homeowner in Twinsburg would expect that a home which has existed for almost 35 years has been bought and sold as a residence financed as a residence, insured as a residence, taxed as a residence, and occupied as a residence would also be zoned as a residence. Our family has lived in this home for more than a decade, and we were even licensed foster parents here, something that underscores how long this property has functioned, been recognized, and even been licensed as an ordinary family home. Our request is simple, which you are, we're trying to get it to ballot. We're asking that our properties zoning reflect what it has actually been for almost 35 years, a single family home. And as this process moves forward, we simply ask our situation be viewed for what it is. And we ask for your help in getting the word out to the public and all of the wards, because our understanding is it has to be a majority in both the overall city and in our ward. I believe that's correct. So. I thank you for your attention to this matter, and we hope that it passes in November.

So, thank you. Thank you very much, Mrs. Best. I won't speak on behalf of my colleagues, but I will certainly do everything that I can do to get your word out, whether it's on my website, my social media channels, those kind of things. So please send me whatever you would like me to distribute. I'm happy to help however I can.

The city also is able to explain ballot initiatives in a way to make it make common sense that we would support that. And I know that the mayor and I have talked about that, and I'm sure that the city is going to put out things to try to educate people as well.

Sam, how about muffins with the mayor too? Because I think, you know, that there's a demographic that needs to be, you know, to understand what's happening. I know you do that.

Yeah. Any other audience participation this evening? Okay. Any other conversation about? This is best. Okay. All right. That said, we will move on to our agenda for the public hearing. Ordinance 202693.

An ordinance rezoning certain property located at 2570 Post Road, Twinsburg, Ohio, parcel 6402608 from public facility use to R3 single unit residential zone use. All right.

Any further discussion about ordinance 202693? Ordinance 2026-94.

An ordinance requesting and authorizing the Summit County Board of Elections to place upon the city of Twinsburg ballot at the general election of November 3rd, 2026, the question of whether ordinance number 2026-093 rezoning certain property located at 2570 Post Road, Twinsburg, Ohio, parcel 6402-608 from public facility use to R3 single... single-unit residential zone use be approved and declared an emergency. All right.

Any further discussion about Ordinance 2026-94? No. All right. Hearing none, I will adjourn the public hearing at 6.07 p.m.