Photo: Jake Underwood/WTAM
SEVILLE - On Monday, a public hearing was held in front of a standing-room-only crowd of concerned village residents. The Village Council of Seville passed an ordinance that residents had spent the previous meetings opposing. This disagreement between Village Council and the residents is over the plans for just under 80 acres of farmland off State Route 3 near I-76.
Village Council announced a deal with Flint Development. The company is known for its massive warehouses. The company proposed a three-warehouse facility totaling over 1.3 million square feet. It would have more than 750 parking spaces and over 220 dock doors. What worried residents the most were the access roads of the project. The plans show the access roads just 25 feet away from the home's property line that sits on the border of the massive project. You can see the residential area in the picture below.
Photo: Jake Underwood/WTAM
People living in the village thought the company could not build a 55-foot warehouse because the town had an ordinance that did not allow new construction to be over 35 feet tall.
That was until Monday, when the village council unanimously voted to amend the Seville zoning code and declared it an emergency.
Residents of the village pleaded their case to the Village Council before the vote, but it did not make a difference.
Missy Rieg lives in one of the homes where the access road would be just 25 yards away from her property line. Missy told WTAM, "the plans that the builders submitted are putting to semi access roads 25 feet from our property lines. The proposed buildings have 227 semi dock doors, so we're looking at an average of 700 semis per day rolling past our homes."
We asked Missy if she had voiced her concern about the access roads. "We've asked them to move the road to the other side of the warehouse, on the highway side, to keep the semi traffic off the residential side. We've gotten no response to that. They haven't asked the developer to do that. they changed the zoning code, so they don't have to move anything."
After the council voted to amend the ordinance, the residents voiced their displeasure, leaving the village hall.
A group of people gathered outside to start planning for the next step in what they feel is the fight to keep their town.
After the meeting, we tried to contact Seville Mayor Carol Carter for comment on this story, but the mayor did not respond to an email.
This is a developing story; we will update it as new information becomes available.
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