This is a stack of papers (just some) that I’ve picked up from Steve Close, the owner of so many of the properties in the Woodcliff area. I put a good old ‘Dixon Ticonderoga’ next to it for prospective. Interesting reading this stack. Let me share some of it with you…

As stated in the previous blog post, some time back Whitehall hired Pizzuti Solutions and Bird Houk Collaborative to work on their ‘Strategic Land Use and Economic Re/Development Plan. It is an extensive piece of work focusing on several areas for redevelopment troughout Whitehall, including the Big Bear, old Swimland site and of course, Woodcliff. Lots of papers. Take a look. I’ll make comments below each paper and at the end.

An invoice from Bird Houk for $48,000.

A reimbursement request for Pizzuti solutions showing the amount for their contracted budget, $125,000.

Woodcliff at Broad and Hamilton overview with redeveloped land

Woodcliff at Broad and Hamilton. The fountain is where the Speedway is now.

A critical overview of the Woodcliff properties

The critical overview continued.

Redevelopment of strategic sites, the Woodcliff area

First two paragraphs finish the redevelopment strategy from the previous page

Tax values for employment income for the strategic site. Looking at the differences between the public pool and the woodcliff area in terms of tax advantages, you can see where focus on Woodcliff would be so much more advantageous than recreation for Whitehall residents.

Real estate property tax values for strategic sites. Again, note the vast differences for something for the community and something from the Woodcliff acquisition.

A public hearing from 2011 where the development Director Dan Lorek introduced representatives from Pizzutti Solutions and Bird Houck Collaborative.

From the public hearing where councilman Leo Knoblauch inquires about Woodcliff/Midcliff

Kim Maggard-Dan Miller email where the mayor mentions Woodcliff/Midcliff. (The Jerry written on the letter refers to Mr. Close’s attorney.)

Forwarded email sent to Development Director about Woodcliff and land banks from 2013

Paper referencing ‘slums and blight’ (Mayor Maggard’s favorite word) and ‘identifying proposed acquisitions and demolitions.

An email sent to our Development Director rgarding Woodcliff and the COCIC (Central Ohio Community Improvement Corporation, Franklin County’s largest land bank, using the word ‘demolition’. (Again, the Jerry mentioned is Steve Close’s attorney.

Something self-explanatory from Bird Houk paid for by you and I.

The emails Robert Broadley was told were lost, incidentally, were all emails with the word ‘Woodcliff’ in the subject heading from 2004 to 2013. Imagine what a loss that is for all the owners of the Woodcliff properties. (But what a gain for the city of Whitehall! Particularly all those people in charge who hired the person who ‘pressed the wrong button’! Plus! Think of all that sweet, sweet tax revenue the lost emails may end up bringing them by possibly helping them in their acquisition of the properties! Yum!)

So…again, this is my thought on the matter; If Whitehall wants to progress itself into a bigger, grander realm of community, fine. That is not my issue here. What I see are people with grandiose notions of Whitehall far beyond its traditional realms but without the income necessary to see these grand plans come to fruition. It is a quandry for those in power who want Whitehall to be both something its not and something more but without foreseeable funds to get them there. In my view, as well as Steve Close’s and others, their avenue to reach this is merely to take it, simply because the city can’t afford it otherwise. Its as simple as that. That even the law won’t stand in the way of Mayor Kim Maggard’s ‘visions’. However, no one asked me or the other citizens of Whitehall how we felt about that. How we would feel if Whitehall started nickle and dimeing individuals to do this and do that and then when they complied, ordered them to do more things and yet, it’s never enough and then they threw roadbloacks in your path and you find out Whitehall spent a bunch of your own money to look into what they could develop on your property and that some people, including the city, are gonna reap big piles of money from your property and then they started talking about your property with land banks, using words like demolition. How would YOU feel about that? Its wrong to do that to you and I, its wrong to do that to anyone, including the rightful property owners of Woodcliff. You don’t ruin people’s lives in order to improve others, at your discretion. If they want to use eminent domain to buy the properties, so be it. If they don’t have the money to do so, leave them alone or find rightful alternatives. They’re like modern day pirates, sailing the streets of Whitehall, deciding whose booty they’re going to plunder, taking what isn’t theirs for their own gain, and if, unlike Steve Close, you don’t have the money to do everything they want or fight them, what are your recourses to fight this pirating? Now,  instead of cutlass’ and cannons, they bear code violations and red tape. What is someone to do if they can’t afford to fight them on their level (a galleon versus a dingy) or with the tools they’re experts with? Pirates sailing the sea robbing decent people or pirates preying on the weak and vulnerable in Whitehall, robbing them of what isn’t theirs to take, they’re both the same.

It appears then that, despite the mask of humanity Mayor Kim Maggard wears for the advancement of her climb up the political ladder, she is actually Whitehall’s version of Captain Kidd. With your vote November 3rd, I pray you sink her, and with her these actions and her upward climb in politics. Whitehall is not Treasure Island.

Man the decks!!