Planning committee rescinds Community Entertainment District ordinance for republication; landlords protest proposed $200 rental-registration fee

Barberton’s Planning, Annexation and Codes committee on July 7 moved to rescind ordinance 80‑20‑25 — the initial Community Entertainment District measure — after law director Miller identified a procedural publication error and said the ordinance had not been published two consecutive weeks as required by RC codes prior to passage.

"According to the RC codes, prior to passage, it had to have been published 2 consecutive weeks in the newspaper of general circulation, and it was not. So this could not have been passed. It needs to be rescinded," Planning Chair Haddock said during the committee meeting. Council then voted to call for the rescission and to reissue the district after the notice is published correctly.

At the same meeting, the planning committee and later the Committee of the Whole also considered amendments to codified ordinance chapters 14.62 (property maintenance) and 14.78 (revised rental property registration program). Those amendments were presented as emergency wording with one reading requested.

During the public comment period, two landlords criticized a proposed $200 per‑unit rental registration fee. Don Pickering, identified in the meeting as a landlord at 242 Fifth Street, said, "I think that's totally ridiculous. There's no way a landlord can recoup them losses in a year ..." He urged a $40 annual fee instead. Another landlord, Fatima Rita, said charging $200 per unit would be burdensome for owners of multiple units and questioned the benefit and use of the money: "If somebody has a lot of units, that costs a lot of money... I would like to know where is the money going to that you're charging that much."

Why it matters: the planning committee's vote rescinds an ordinance already passed because the required public‑notice steps were not followed; the rental registration changes and the objections from landlords speak to potential financial impacts on property owners and tenants.

Sources: Planning Chair Haddock and law director Miller in committee; public comment from Don Pickering and Fatima Rita at the July 7 Committee of the Whole meeting.