Wednesday, March 29, 2000
Environment bill outlasts critics
House about to pass Taft plan
BY MICHAEL HAWTHORNE
The Cincinnati Enquirer
COLUMBUS — Gov. Bob Taft's $400 million bond proposal to clean up abandoned industrial sites and preserve green space got caught up Tuesday in a simmering debate about suburban sprawl.
At the behest of developers, a handful of mostly Republican lawmakers on the House Finance Committee pushed unsuccessfully to block the state from using some of the money to preserve farmland.
Their amendment failed on a 22-8 vote, clearing the way for House approval today of legislation that would put the issue on the November ballot. The debate could spill over into the Senate, but Mr. Taft is urging Senate President Richard Finan, R-Evendale, to leave the proposal intact.
As it stands now, money from the bonds could be used to secure development rights that keep farmland free from strip malls and housing tracts.
“If we are going to attract more people to Ohio, where are they going to live?” said Rep. Gary Cates, R-West Chester, one of the eight lawmakers who voted to strip farmland preservation from the proposal.
“You can't just stack people up into high-density areas,” Mr. Cates said. “That's not what people want to do.”
Under the governor's proposal, half the money from the bond issue would be used for local efforts to preserve farmland and pay for parks, bike paths or other projects intended to preserve green space.
The other $200 million would be used to clean up abandoned industrial sites, also known as brownfields, most of which are in urban areas.
Rep. Peter Lawson Jones, R-Shaker Heights, said preserving farmland is one way to help encourage redevelopment of Ohio's urban areas.
“How can you redevelop our urban cores if market forces are left unchecked and businesses are encouraged to move to (suburban) areas?” Mr. Jones said.
Vince Squillace, lobbyist for the Ohio Home Builders Association, said removing farmland references from the ballot issue wouldn't have prevented the state from using bond proceeds as lawmakers see fit.
Rep. Robert Corbin, a Centerville Republican who chairs the Finance Committee, disagreed. He said law yers advising legislative leaders on the proposal told him that removing the language would restrict state leaders from using the money to preserve farmland.
Before the panel sent the measure to the full House, it approved two amendments proposed by environmental groups.
The amendments ensure that none of the preservation money be spent for commercial uses and prohibit companies that polluted sites to get money to clean them up.
Environmentalists lost an attempt to require public notice and input before money is spent to clean up brownfields.
Republicans argued it would gut a 1996 law that frees companies from most criminal and civil liability if they clean up their own sites. The law also blocks public access to some cleanup records.
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