Tuesday, May 09, 2000
Council to hear power rate plan
Lebanon prices may be raised
By Cindi Andrews
The Cincinnati Enquirer
LEBANON — An electric rate increase, new landscaping rules and city seizure of an old house are among the issues City Council will sift through tonight.
A proposal to raise residents' and businesses' electric rates 20 percent will get its first hearing.
It would be the first increase in 18 years, said electric department Director Dave Clark, and is necessary because of electricity's rising cost. The city recently renewed its contract with Cinergy.
Council could vote tonight on a controversial new landscape ordinance that a council committee tweaked in a heated meeting last week.
The proposal still would require all new residential and commercial sites to have 20 trees per net acre, which doesn't include land set aside for roads.
But developers persuaded the committee to require industrial sites to have 20 trees per acre of setback — or buffer area — because the rest of those sites typically are used for buildings, said Deputy Planning Director Doug Johnson. On a 7-acre site, that would require about 60 trees instead of 140, he said.
Also on the agenda:
ćA proposal to proceed in seizing through eminent domain a Mechanic Street house that could be the city's oldest. Property owner John McComb already has rejected council's offer of $81,500 for the house. The next step would be to let a court decide what the city must pay for it.
However, the fight is far from over, as some people think several hundred thousand taxpayer dollars shouldn't be spent on the fire-damaged property. Both sides are gathering signatures.
ćAn ordinance that would start the ball rolling on $2.5 million in electric department improvements.
A substation on Monroe Road and the transmission line need to be expanded, Mr. Clark said, to serve the growing city of 14,000-plus residents.
“We're getting close to capacity,” he said.
Work should begin by the end of the year and take eight to 10 months to complete, Mr. Clark said.
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