Fort annexation agreement finalized

FORT RECOVERY - An agreement signed this week has settled a dispute over the annexation of just more than 30 acres of land into Fort Recovery.

Property owners and government officials have signed a settlement agreement, which will open the door to annexing 12 lots near the intersection of state Road 49 and Sharpsburg Road into the village. An original agreement had been signed by 11 of the 21 property owners while the remaining 10 owners appealed in Mercer County Common Pleas Court. Nine months of negotiations followed, concluding with village council members voting on Monday to sign a negotiated settlement agreement.

The settlement essentially gives those who opposed annexation 15 years before their property is annexed. The properties could be annexed prior to that time if the property is sold or if the property is connected to any village utility service. It also clears the way for a proposed housing development to be built on one of the lots to be annexed.

"We're going to be wrapping up our end of it next week, getting everything filed," village administrator Randy Diller said. Village council members will meet in regular session at 7:30 p.m. Monday.

"Obviously, the big thing for the village is to know that the developer can go ahead and get things moving for his development, so potentially we could see some housing starts going up next year," Diller said.

The agreement also allows the raising of a limited number of livestock in an enclosed structure on Dillan and Paige Schulze's property. Aside from keeping the structure more than 45 feet from the property line, the family is allowed to raise no more than six large animals and 12 small animals.

"The next steps in the process are to get the court case canceled and the original annexation plan canceled," Diller said. "From there we will start that annexation processes to get the proposed housing subdivision going through a type 2 annexation, which means that everyone on the petition is signed and wants to be annexed. It's a quicker process. So that will be starting, along with the other property owners who were original signatures on the agreement. We'll be doing a push to get their properties annexed along the highway. The original agreement includes being able to annex the right-of-ways of all the properties along both stretches of Sharpsburg Road and 49, so that will be part of this process."   

County commissioners approved the original annexation on a 2-1 vote Dec. 31, 2015. The decision was appealed by a group of property owners and Gibson Township trustees about one month later. That group included property owners the Schulzes, Lavern and Jane Weitzel and Michael and Susan Thien and trustees Gary Post and Don Kahlig. Michael Thien also is a township trustee. The commissioners signed the new agreement among the parties Sept. 27.