SIDNEY — The city of Sidney Community Services Department provides a wide variety of professional development and planning services to the citizens of Sidney.

“The Department is responsible for ensuring compliance with city ordinances for the development and continued maintenance of every property in the city, including review and approval of permits, inspections, and enforcement of the city’s building, zoning, and property maintenance ordinances. Between on-going development, administration duties, and special projects, the department remained exceptionally busy throughout 2015,” said Director Barbara Dulworth.

Her report continues:

Planning

Staff reviews development petitions and presents them to the Planning Commission or Zoning Board of Appeals. These petitions include cases such as subdivisions, replats/lot splits, rezoning requests, conditional uses and variances. Staff presented a total of eleven cases to the Planning Commission in 2015. The majority of these cases (seven of 11) were requests for replats or lot splits. One Zoning Code amendment was also completed to adopt new Flood Insurance Rate Maps completed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nine petitions were presented to the Zoning Board of Appeals, including conditional uses, variances, expansion of non-conforming uses, and one administrative appeal.

Permits

Staff reviews a wide variety of permit applications, ranging in type from permits for new structures to temporary sign permits. Each permit application is reviewed for compliance with the city’s Codified Ordinances. Permits and other requests coming into the department have been relatively consistent with previous years, though there is a decline in the types of projects requiring approvals from the Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Commission.

A total of 274 residential Building Permits were issued in 2015. Residential Building Permits issued include: new residential units (13 permits); additions, porches, and decks, (23 permits); HVAC, electric/gas turn-on, and rewire (196 permits); seasonal and permanent pool or hot tub (four permits); and other permits (38 permits).

Zoning permits issued in 2015 totaled 195 permits. Thirteen Site Plan Permits were issued for new buildings or expansion of commercial or industrial development. In addition, 35 Use Compliance Certificates were issued for new businesses moving into or expanding in an existing building. A total of 79 permits were issued for permanent and temporary signs, and 68 Fence Permits were issued.

Enforcement

Staff is charged with ensuring that properties throughout Sidney are in compliance with the rules set forth in the city’s Codified Ordinances and the Residential Code of Ohio. Staff inspects sites and addresses property maintenance, signage, occupancy of buildings, and construction activities. They also respond to citizen complaints and inquiries, and administer enforcement actions.

A total of 1,207 violations were addressed in 2015. The greatest number of violations were junk, garbage, and litter (543) with high grass and weed violations following (257). The property owner or occupant corrected 823 of the violations, with the City’s contractor correcting the remaining.

Special projects

Staff initiated the process of updating the city’s comprehensive plan, Imagine Sidney 2025, with appointment of a Steering Committee representing a broad spectrum of community interests and hiring of a planning consultant. Two Steering Committee meetings were held and a community-wide survey was rolled out. The online survey, which is linked on the city’s website www.sidneyoyh.com will be available for respondents for a large part of 2016.

2016 Outlook

In the upcoming year, the update to the comprehensive plan will continue, with public forums and meetings with target groups, such as seniors and high school students. In addition, projects will commence with funding through the Community Housing Impact & Preservation (CHIP) grant as well as the Community Development Block Grant Allocation fund. Both of these grants assist low-income homeowners to make necessary repairs to their home (CHIP) or their sanitary sewer lateral (Allocation).