MEDINA COUNTY, Ohio — Residents of a Medina County township are in a battle to keep it rural and to keep big box stores out.
Ali and Chase Burmeister bought their dream home in Lafayette Township about eight years ago. Since then, they’ve put blood, sweat and tears into it.
But, now, just steps away from their home, their new next-door neighbor will be a Dollar General store.
“I’ve spent the last 2 months versing myself in our zoning resolution, our comprehensive plan, Ohio Revised Code, just to educate myself,” she said.
They, and several other residents, have been fighting the proposed store since Lafayette Township Trustees approved the sale of the land.
Burmeister evenstarted an online petition to keep Dollar General out of Lafayette Township. It has more than 600 signatures, to date.
Steve Dimonski, a resident, agreed with their fight to keep the store out.
“I think the stores are ugly looking. I don’t think they belong out here. They don’t fit the area,” he said. “I think it harms the ‘Mom and Pop’ stores because these box stores come in and have so much buying power that they just run these ‘Mom and Pop’ stores out."
Despite their concerns, at a special meeting Friday afternoon, Lafayette Township Trustees approved the site plans of the store. The approval means the construction can and will begin.
Chris O’Neil is the Township’s Zoning Liaison and one of the three trustees. He said the property is in a commercially zoned area and while he sympathizes with the residents, they can’t pick and choose what goes in.
“We keep getting told that there’s absolutely nothing the trustees can do. They’re following the zoning ordinances so we can’t stop this, and we keep saying we can stop it. There has to be something we can do,” said Dimonski.
Burmeister said after studying the site plans and comparing them to township code, she feels like there are violations in the plan.
“They can’t pick and choose what comes in, but our zoning code is the tool to uphold our comprehensive plan. If you read up on those and educate yourself on those, there are definitely violations on this project and they chose to ignore that.”
O’Neil said the trustees, legal counsel and the zoning inspector reviewed the plan and said there weren’t any problems with it.
Burmeister didn’t get a chance to tell them what she has found because Friday’s meeting did not allow public comment.
“It never should’ve passed today without modifications,” she said.
Dimonski feels like the meeting lacked transparency and accountability.
“This special meeting here kind of got thrown on us at the last minute. The agenda for this special meeting was not on the township’s website. It’s a Friday on a holiday weekend at 4:00 in the afternoon,” he said.
O’Neil said the meeting was moved from Monday because of Labor Day, and that they’ve been discussing the Dollar General site for months with the public, so there wasn’t anything new introduced at Friday’s meeting.
However Burmeister feels like they’re not listening.
“To shut out the people that they’re supposed to be the voice for, out of something that is really big in our township, it is really disgraceful,” she said. “This fight is not over.”
