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Conference to examine land use issues in Buckeye state

By MICHELE F. MIHALJEVICH
Indiana Correspondent

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Water, energy and other land use issues will be featured topics during an upcoming event on The Ohio State University campus; the Ohio Land Use Conference is Nov. 17 at the Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center in Columbus.

The conference is geared toward local officials dealing with land use issues, and resource-type professionals, such as staff members with Soil and Water Conservation Districts, departments of development and rural and urban land use agencies, said Peggy Hall, director of OSU’s extension agricultural and resource law program. Interested residents, organizations and planners are also invited to attend.

“We’ll be providing useful information on the role land use plays in everything,” Hall said.

“Many people tend to narrow that to zoning, but that needs to be broadened to understand the role land use plays in our everyday life. Land use entails all human activities related to the use of the land.”

This is the second year for the Ohio Land Use Conference, but it previously had been offered under a different name since the 1990s, Hall said. She expects about 150 people to attend the conference, which is hosted by OSU extension.

Speakers from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Ohio Department of Natural Resources (DNR) will discuss ways to protect community water supplies, which is a growing concern at the community level, she said.

“As we have more and more growth, there is less aquifer recharge. These issues are catching us off guard,” she said.

“Communities are finding they have to address supply. Is there enough water, or enough good water? They’re also looking at what we’re putting near our water resources.”

A good land use plan is transparent and tries to balance the needs of competing interests, said Sean Logan, director of the DNR. Logan will speak during the morning session.

“There are always those who are concerned about being overburdened by government regulation, but I’ve also seen the downside of not having land use planning,” he said.

“The greatest value is in just having the conversation. These are very difficult issues.”

Decisions about land use in Ohio are made at the community level, not at the state level, he said.

“Ohio is a small box state,” Logan explained. “It’s up to local elected officials to do land use planning. But if they don’t use the authority they have, the private sector will do it by default. And that does have an impact on people downstream.”

An afternoon session will feature a panel discussing energy and land use and will include comments on ethanol and sustainable energies, Hall said.

Another afternoon session will look at how the economy and mortgage problems affect land use.

“People may wonder what impact the economy has on this, but it has a pretty significant impact,” she said.

The conference’s lunchtime speaker will be Marvin Hayes, director of urban development and infrastructure for Gov. Ted Strickland. He will discuss economic prosperity and ways to turn Ohio around, Hall said.

The conference is 9 a.m.-4 p.m. and the cost is $55, which includes materials and meals. The registration deadline is Nov. 10.
For questions, call 614-292-6232, or find more information, a registration form and an agenda at http://comdev.osu.edu/landuse_conf08.html

10/29/2008