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Gahanna administration recommends charter changes: add strategic-plan requirement, streamline department language, remove BZBA
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Summary
Senior city staff recommended adding a mayor-led strategic-plan requirement and annual reporting to the charter, cleaning up department-language in Article 5, modernizing public-notice rules, and deleting the Board of Zoning and Building Appeals — sparking detailed discussion about appeals, fees and alternatives.
Senior city staff presented a package of charter-change recommendations to the Charter Review Commission on March 12, urging edits the administration says would align the charter with current operations and regional practice.
Senior Director Miranda Volmer proposed adding language to Article 3 for a mayor-led strategic plan that includes public comment and an annual progress report. Volmer tied the recommendation to the city's existing strategic-planning work and said the provision would require updates as needed and submission to council for review and adoption. Commissioners asked whether the strategic-plan requirement would duplicate the existing state-of-the-city requirement; Mayor Chadwick said the strategic-plan reporting could be built into the state-of-the-city process.
Volmer and Mayor Chadwick discussed cost and timing. Volmer said strategic-plan work can vary widely in cost; updating a plan can be relatively inexpensive, while comprehensive community-engagement efforts can range much higher. Volmer noted the city spent nearly $35,000–$40,000 on public engagement for the current plan and warned that a full rewrite could be far more expensive.
The administration also recommended modernizing public-notice language in Article 4 by removing the requirement to post notices in municipal buildings and instead relying on online posting (gahanna.gov) and other modern notice practices. The proposal reflects that fewer residents access municipal buildings regularly.
On Article 5, staff proposed replacing fixed lists of departments with a description of administrative functions (finance, HR, IT, court services, public service, engineering, planning, parks and recreation, economic development, public safety, emergency management) to avoid conflicts with organizational charts and to preserve operational flexibility.
A major substantive recommendation was to delete Article 12 and eliminate the Board of Zoning and Building Appeals (BZBA). Volmer and Planning Director Blackford argued the BZBA's duties have diminished and that in practice appeals and exceptions are rare; Blackford said his review of roughly a dozen regional jurisdictions found that Gahanna's approach is unusual. The administration suggested appeals would be better handled by the planning commission in the rare cases where a local hearing is needed, and ultimately by Franklin County courts when appropriate.
The city attorney and planning director explained technical points about appeals, noting that mayor's-court citations and certain appeals proceed to Franklin County municipal or common pleas courts, and that a 2506-style appeal to county courts exists for final determinations. Commissioners discussed whether removing the BZBA would leave any parties without an in-city first hearing and whether planning commission duties should be broadened to absorb the rare BZBA matters.
Commissioners asked for data on how many BZBA filings were actually heard vs. filed and requested that staff provide records showing hearing frequency. The administration agreed to work with the clerk to supply hearing counts to inform the commission's decision.
What happens next: administration will provide redline language and requested hearing statistics; commissioners will consider the BZBA recommendation and related drafting during the prioritization and drafting sessions now scheduled under the adopted work plan.
