GALION, Ohio — Galion City Council is getting serious about attracting businesses to their city. Council is passing legislation and considering new laws that would incentivize investors.
During Tuesday’s meeting, council approved legislation that will allow the city to appoint representatives to the Housing Council — a board authorized to establish rules surrounding a Community Reinvestment Area.
A CRA, O’Leary explained, offers tax incentives to businesses looking to build within that designated area.
“We’re just repopulating that board,” O’Leary said of the seven-person board needed to govern the CRA rules. “We have up to three businesses looking at developing.”
The CRA will cover all of Galion’s city limits, explained O’Leary.
Council member Tom Fellner motioned to suspend the rules so council could pass the legislation right away, without delay.
“By doing this, we’re sending a message to possible investors and makes us look serious and not a laughing stock,” Fellner said. The council, minus absent council member Susan Bean, suspended the rules and approved the legislation.
Along the lines of development, a spokesperson from Galion’s zoning appeals board addressed city council members Tuesday night to suggest the rezoning of Hesby Drive from residential to commercial.
The zone to be rezoned includes two parcels of “sizable” land, the spokesperson said.
“There are no definite plans yet on what will be built,” Mayor Tom O’Leary said. Hesby Drive branches off Harding Way West and runs north into the Galion City Schools campus before opening into the parking lot of the high school.
The proposal was approved and will move to the Zoning and Permits Development Committee, which meets next Tuesday, Feb. 16. The rezoning proposal will likely appear as legislation at council’s next meeting.
Council also voted to approve the city’s elimination of a bed tax. Council suspended the rules to pass the piece of legislation that was only on its second reading. Legislation must go through three readings unless voted to suspend those rules.
The resolution repeals Galion’s current bed tax structure, which charges hotel guests a 6 percent tax. The tax is divided into two allocations; 3 percent of the tax collected goes entirely into Galion’s general fund. The other 3 percent is allocated both for the city’s general fund and a visitor’s bureau on a 50/50 ratio.
With the construction of a 70-bed hotel in Galion on the horizon, the resolution will incentivize prospective hotels to the city in the future.
Galion Mayor Tom O’Leary said Tuesday after the city council meeting he is waiting for background checks to be finalized before welcoming in the long-awaited public information officer.
“He said he’d be ready to start working next week,” O’Leary said. “Yeah, it’s a he,” he added, smiling.
Discussions to hire the controversial PIO began September 2015 and passed legislation with a 6-1 margin approving the position in late October. Funds were then allocated to accommodate the position in early December.
There were nine applicants for the position. O’Leary did not offer further comment on the individual who was offered the job.
