City of Springdale History On-Line

With the election of 1975, a new era in Springdale began. After twelve years of Norrish's administration, the mayor's gavel passed to Raymond Johnson. The voters finally demonstrated faith in council by reelecting Vernon French, the first incumbent to be returned in six years. On November 19 Kenneth Schneider replaced Paul Weber who resigned after seventeen years as legal counsel. Finally, in 1975-76 with its major capital improvements virtually completed, Springdale directed its attention toward new goals.

When the electorate chose its new mayor, it also passed an amendment limiting mayoral authority by an overwhelming margin 1529-686. The mayor could no longer veto resolutions passed by council. The power struggles between the mayor's office and council that had marked the previous years diminished. Johnson's leadership contributed to the easing of tensions within the government, and between the government and those it represented as well.

A minor incident illustrated the new mayor's approach. A representative of Swallen's requested a temporary permit to sell lawn and garden materials outside the store. This practice violated city ordinances and Johnson firmly pointed out the new city administration's concerns about the full enforcement of the law. If council desired to modify the ordinance in question it had the power to do so, but until it did, the law stood. After this statement of principle, Johnson demonstrated his flexibility. If Swallen's saw this as a hardship case, Johnson suggested they go to the Board of Zoning Appeals for relief. He offered to discuss the matter personally with the Swallen's representative and, if necessary, arrange a conference with the city's legal counsel.

Johnson backed up his management style with extensive preparation, spending an average of twenty hours a week on mayoral business. When he ran for reelection in 1980, he did so unopposed, certainly a tribute to his competence and popularity. But the long hours combined with his employment as an engineer with Proctor and Gamble and his family responsibilities took its toll. Johnson, who suffered a heart attack in September 1981, chose not to seek reelection in 1983.

In the meantime Springdale continued its move toward greater professionalization in government. In 1973 council passed an ordinance creating the positions of mayor's court prosecutor and health commissioner. The voters approved a charter amendment in November 1977 which officially wrote the position of city administrator into the charter, thereby recognizing the greater responsibilities assumed by Cecil Osborn.

The city had also attained a measure of maturity. The population, which had increased nearly 300 percent between 1960 and 1975, stabilized near the ten thousand mark. The city could finally enjoy the fruits of its long-term capital improvements program, including resurfacing all of the subdivision streets and the building of a magnificent recreation complex that served the community. City government and services also moved from the cramped converted firehouse on Springfield Pike to the new municipal building and firehouse on Lawnview.

By March 1972, the new zoning code was completed and presented to Solicitor Schneider for his review. The new code reflected council's desires to protect Springdale's residential neighborhoods by containing retail businesses with buffer zones. If anyone thought the city had embarked on a smooth path, Walter Comer quickly disillusioned them. Comer had a developer for a 33-acre tract north of Northland and west of Cherry, Plum, and Grandin. His original proposal, presented in 1974, to build FHA-financed homes on small lots on the land had led to the latest revision of the zoning code. Council had taken the matter under advisement in April 1974. When the residents turned out en masse to oppose it, council rejected the request. The following year, Comer and his developer returned with a request for multi-family zoning for the site and a proposal for condominiums which council also turned down. In December 1976, Comer then challenged council's refusal to rezone his acreage on Northland Boulevard from office to general business so that he could develop the property as a car lot. Council denied the request because a residential district abutted it on the west. Comer answered that a surfeit of office space existed in the Tri-County area and that an automobile agency, Kerry Ford, already sat on the other side of the property.

In an effort to improve its legal position, Springdale hired its own planner who testified the area could not support an all single-family development and recommended the multi-family zoning. In April 1977, the city reached a comprehensive settlement with Comer, and agreed to the general business rezoning for the property next to Kerry Ford, provided it was developed in accordance with a site plan already filed. All nearby residential property was rezoned RMF-1 with stipulations. The city required the development to be at least 50 percent condominium, established a 100-foot setback line, and required the developer to provide his own access street. Under those circumstances, the city felt fortunate to impose some controls at least.

When the city turned its attention to the revitalization of Rt. 4 in late 1977, it chose to continue its initiative in establishing transitional zoning based on the recommendations of professional planners. Council selected Vogt, Sage, and Pflum, to conduct a study for the revitalization of the central business district along Rt. 4 between I-275 and Northland Boulevard. The purpose of the study was "to retain the environment of the village, enhance the business aspects, and maintain the characteristics of the residential section."

The planners worked in conjunction with a Revitalization Committee composed of business representatives, residents and property owners in developing a thoroughfare plan. Their report emphasized the need to ease the traffic load on Rt. 4 by widening it to four lanes through the business district. At the same time, it hoped to reduce the impact of revitalization on the adjoining residential area between Kemper and Sharon Road, as well as maintain the residential character of the areas west of Rt. 4. The report encouraged the clustering of office building development through preventive rezoning, if necessary, in order to stop encroachment of commercial or retail development into residential areas. Such low-intensity uses would also lower traffic levels, which was another major concern of the city. Council also altered the zoning code to provide for transitional or buffer districts. A public hearing to discuss this change was held on February 21, 1979, and council member Marge Boice reminded council that one buffer-type zoning, "OB," already existed, and she feared the creation of transitional district zoning might cause other problems. Schneider assured her that transitional zoning had been upheld by the courts, and Mayor Johnson added that while it might not be the perfect solution, it was better than nothing. Council passed the ordinance by a six to one margin.

But in 1981, when the planning commission recommended office zoning for four tracts of land in the Springfield Pike and Northland area in accordance with this philosophy, property owners loudly complained about the devaluation of their property. One plea came from Paul Kattlemen, who reminded members of the contributions his recently deceased father Al and his mother Virginia had made over many years to Springdale, and argued the "impracticality" of office zoning. Sentiment gave way to brass tacks, however, when Kattleman threatened legal action if council approved the zoning. He stressed that under Ohio law the constitutionality of zoning had to be applied to each particular piece of land, parcel by parcel. Kattleman pointed out that in 1980 a federal district court denied the city of Willowby and its individual council members immunity in a lawsuit against the city. In a four to three vote council rejected the office zoning despite the pleas of Mayor Johnson. Three years later, council reconsidered and approved office zoning for the three remaining parcels. Kanter Corporation, which wanted to develop a Wendy's on one of the parcels at the corner of Rt. 4 and Northland, took the city to court. The court date was set for October 24. Persuaded that the city's position would not prevail, on October 19, 1983 council authorized Schneider to file a judgment entry in the Kanter suit. Springdale would have a Wendy's but it would have to conform strictly to the site plan. Once more, Springdale found its plans for controlling its own destiny in a shambles.

Although few large-scale properties suitable for development still remained in the city, council sought to forestall lengthy and expensive, and frequently futile legal battles over them by the use of a Community Unit Plan (CUP), alternately known as a PUD, Planned Unit Development, which allowed the municipality greater voice in development. Because of more flexible guidelines, PUDs gave the city greater bargaining power in dealing with the developers. This was the approach the city took with Universal Home Builders, Inc., headed by Joseph Schwarz, which received tentative approval in December 1977 to develop the 106.5-acre Springdale Lakes area, just north of I-275 and Rt. 4. Schwartz's initial plan called for 335 condominiums on sixty acres, forty-five single-family houses and a motel and commercial area on the property fronting Rt. 4. On August 16, 1978 council approved a community unit plan for the development called The Crossings, which included a Sheraton Hotel that would be built in the commercial zone on Rt. 4. The developer would fill in the 11-acre man-made natural drainage run-off lake that had provided recreational fishing for Springdale residents. Other, smaller lakes would be retained. The planning commission placed restrictions on the rest of the commercial property, including no auto dealerships, fast food, amusement or recreation centers. The condominiums and single-family houses behind the commercial area would buffer the Oxford and Beacon Hills subdivisions.

No one, of course, anticipated that the national economy could do so much to erode even the best-planned PUD. Inflation rates skyrocketed from 5 percent in 1977, when Schwarz made his plans, to 14.5 percent by January 1980. Astronomical interest rates combined with an unemployment rate that reached 10 percent in 1982 led to the collapse of the real estate market. Schwartz, stuck with unsold condominiums on his hands, shocked the planning commission in January 1982 by proposing to build a $30 million high-rise apartment building for older adults instead of completing all of the condominiums. The planning commission called it an "erosion of the PUD" and rejected Schwartz's revisions.

On August 4, Schwartz informed council of his application for FHA and VA fianancing to allow for thirty-year fixed-rate mortgages at 16 1/2 and 15 1/2 percent respectively. Council endorsed this action. Schwartz's troubles, however, did not end and neither did Springdale's headaches with The Crossings.

III

In February 1980, while still dealing with growing pains inside their own boundaries, Springdale officials seriously considered annexing Union Township. As described earlier, a similar effort in 1963 failed when it was rejected by the Butler County Commissioners. On February 6, representatives of the Union Township Incorporation Committee attended Springdale's council meeting and expressed alarmed about maintaining the tax base needed for their Lakota School District. Fearful about becoming the target of annexation, Union Township residents sought Springdale's support for their incorporation bid. According to the Ohio Revised Code, however, an area with a population under 25,000 needed the consent of municipalities within a three-mile radius to incorporate. A year earlier Fairfield had annexed 110 acres of industrial land near Port Union. Springdale was the committee's final stop. After he heard the request, Vernon French, president of council, called an executive session.

Much to the consternation of the incorporation committee, when council returned French announced the creation of a committee to investigate the possibility of Springdale annexing part of Union Township. Springdale welcomed the cooperation of Union Township trustees. The usual factors attracted Springdale, including the desire to manage area traffic, and control undeveloped industrial land. Indeed, the traffic along Crescentville Road and Princeton Pike, the key routes to Springdale's industrial parks and to Tri-County, worsened steadily over the years. Mayor Johnson told the Enquirer that Union Township could not control the problem and Butler County had not.

At the same time, the committee recognized that industrial development in the area being considered, approximately three square miles, would give Springdale a more balanced tax base but it also evaluated less positive aspects of annexation. A new Ohio law required that if the annexing city swallowed up an area that comprised more than 15 percent of a community's tax base, than taxes were to be pro-rated over a seven-year period.

On May 7, Administrator Osborn reported to council a few sobering facts including that the city poured in $3.4 million in capital improvements and another $1,150,00 in tax reimbursements and services, the annexation would lead the city into a $6.8 million deficit over a ten-year period. On August 6, James Beamer, chairman of the annexation committee, reported a conservative figure of a $2 million deficit after ten years just to provide services and upgrade Rt. 747 between Crescentville and Mulhauser roads. To pay for the expense of annexation, the committee concluded, would mean floating bonds, readjusting current capital improvements priorities or raising taxes. By a four to three vote, council resisted the temptation.

All the talk of annexation motivated Butler County Commissioners to commit themselves, apparently, to widening the road, or at least that is how council interpreted their actions. Yet when the issue rose for the third time in 1985, nothing had been done.

IV

On August 8, 1974, millions of Americans sat riveted before their television sets and watched Richard M. Nixon resign as president of the U.S. By early 1975 nearly forty officials of his administration, including vice president Spiro Agnew, had been named in criminal indictments. After the national trauma of Watergate, disclosure laws and "open government" became political issues.

The climate of Watergate even affected Springdale. On February 25, 1976 Doyle Webster, city clerk, commented that council's executive sessions had become "very conspicuous." Schneider responded with a list of six topics that could be discussed in executive session, the most important being discussion of personnel problems or employee negotiations, pending litigation and property purchases or sales where the public interest was affected.

The issue of openness in city government pitted the preservation of confidentiality, when information hurt an individual or the public interest, against the public's right to have its business conducted openly. Finding the proper balance plagued council for some time to come. Doyle Webster, who loudly proclaimed his opinions on the subject, refused to let the issue die.

Webster came by his passion for openness in government quite naturally, and it was a central part of his personality. Webster never repressed his feelings, whether anger or enthusiasm, and he was willing to accept the consequences. Springdale voters showed their appreciation of the feisty, outspoken clerk by keeping him in office. Webster demonstrated considerable acumen in guiding Springdale's finances through the shoals of inflation and stagnation which was so characteristic of the national economy in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Webster prided himself on running a tight ship, limiting expenditures and debt, and keeping real estate taxes low. In the early 1980s he quoted President Reagan on economic discipline although, unlike his role model, he succeeded in reducing Springdale's deficit. In 1975 after a hard-fought battle Webster persuaded council to reduce the debt incurred by the city in its capital improvements program. While many council members preferred to continue rolling over the debt each year, Webster prevailed upon them to issue a ten-year bond to pay off this indebtedness. That strategy paid off handsomely when interest rates soared in the early 1980s. If Springdale had still been rolling over the debt, the annually escalating interest rates would have been devastating.

The inflationary spiral created other budgetary concerns. The expenses of running the city, with salaries, equipment, and insurance, threatened to outpace revenues. In 1977 Springdale's budget contained a $114,000 surplus, but Webster predicted that would shrink to $11,000 in 1978 and $21,000 by 1979. In light of these considerations, Springdale officials began to consider new sources of revenue. The erection of several new motels, in addition to the Sheraton, made a motel-hotel tax a possibility and, on June 21, 1978 council approved a 3 percent motel tax allocating that the revenues go to municipal services and operations.

When regional motion-picture theaters became the trend in the 1970s, two chains, Showcase Cinemas and Mid-States Theaters built complexes in Springdale. In response, Springdale imposed a cinema tax. The Showcase Cinemas, operated by National Amusements, Inc., a Boston company owned by the powerful Sumner Redstone, cried foul at what it termed Springdale's "inflationary and discriminatory" tax. National Amusements tried to have the courts repeal the tax but Springdale prevailed.

The chaotic economy affected the earnings tax. In 1979, it grew at a 14 percent annual rate but by the first half of 1980 it had plummeted to 7.8 percent. Still, Webster took advantage of the prevailing high interest rates to make profitable investments for the city. As a result, Springdale successfully weathered the economic storm and was ready to move ahead when the economy rebounded in 1984.

These years saw a nagging uncertainty that Springdale, which for so long had sought to manage its growth, might soon have no growth to manage. In 1982 the city lost some major companies. The Kroger candy plant was vacant, Cincinnati Financial Services planned to move to Fairfield for more space and Cincinnati Microwave built its new plant in the Landen area.

In response, the City of Springdale took advantage of Ohio Development Finance Commission loans to lure new business. One example was the General Motors Corporation, which showed interest in locating a field office on Tri-County Parkway. When G.M. came to Springdale, it meant that G.M. had to withhold the earnings tax for any Springdale resident working in any G.M. operation.

In April 1983, council initiated a move to have local businessmen organize a Community Improvement Corporation in an effort to entice new business to Springdale. CIC president Jeff Tullock explained that the CIC would issue industrial revenue bonds [IRBs] and give information to businesses in the area about other forms of available state and federal financial assistance. Although the CIC was authorized to issue IRBs, council had first to approve the bond issue. While the city conferred its tax-free status to IRB's, the debt was the responsibility of the applicant, not the city. It also promoted Springdale's high level of services to business. Springdale chose to create its own bond-issuing agency so that if the State of Ohio began to limit the number of industrial revenue bonds it issued, the CIC would be in place to fill the gap. In 1984, Springdale entered another period of prosperity and eventually the city dissolved the CIC..

Mayor Johnson announced in July 1983 that he would not seek a third term. For twelve years he had worked extremely hard for the city in two terms as mayor, and one as councilman. He told the Enquirer that he felt particularly proud that during his tenure the city widened Springfield Pike from Kemper to I-275, and Princeton Pike from Kemper south to Glendale, and that the city's population did not decline as happened in neighboring communities but held firm at the 10,000 mark. Johnson saw his role as bringing greater stability to Springdale. Indeed, under his tenure, Springdale came of age.

It may seen ludicrous to say that a community established in 1806 matured in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but in a certain sense that was exactly what happened. Springdale's challenge now rested in managing and improving its existing resources. In the second half of the eighties, Springdale has become more aware than ever before that its most precious resource is its people.