Warren City Council authorizes solicitor to sign consent order in land-use appeal over hotel parcel

Warren City Council on Feb. 20 voted to authorize City Solicitor Andrea Stapleford to execute a consent order resolving a land-use appeal filed by John Branch over parcel W N 49986100, a small portion of which the city zoning map has long shown as industrial despite later rezoning of the surrounding property.

The vote came at a specially called meeting prompted by the pending court docket (docket number 292025) and completed with six affirmative votes; Council member McCain declined to cast a vote. Councilmember (mover) Lalala introduced the authorization with an amendment limiting the consent order to the subsurface oil-and-gas interests, and the motion was seconded (second not specified in the record). The motion carried with six votes in the affirmative, and the mayor cast a yes vote as recorded by roll call.

The dispute stems from a small two-tenths-of-an-acre sliver of parcel W N 49986100 that, according to the city solicitor, continued to be depicted on the City of Warren zoning map as industrial even after the rest of the…