Drivers at the Home Road and Steitz Road intersection are a step closer to getting new sidewalks and ramps after Powell City Council introduced an $81,674 contract with Jess Howard Electric Company on Aug. 4, according to the city's council agenda.
The same meeting pushed the city's comprehensive zoning code rewrite closer to adoption, giving Ordinance 2026-14 its second reading. The overhaul, more than two and a half years in the making, would cut the number of public hearings a developer must clear and give City Council an earlier voice in the review process.
Intersection project
The Home and Steitz intersection currently lacks sidewalks and ramps, City Manager Andrew White told council at a June 16 meeting. Part of the intersection sits outside city limits, requiring coordination with Delaware County.
"The intersection improvements at Home and Steitz [have] no sidewalks or ramps at the current location. Part of the intersection is outside of the City, so there was a lot of coordination that went through," White said at that June 16 session.
City Engineer Aaron Stanford has been working with the county engineer's office on right-of-way permits and a full design since at least March 2026, according to earlier council minutes. The city obtained three quotes; at $81,674, the winning bid exceeded Ohio Revised Code's roughly $79,000 threshold for informal procurement, triggering the formal ordinance process.
Ordinance 2026-16 declares an emergency, which under Ohio law allows the measure to take effect immediately upon final passage rather than waiting the standard 30-day period. The first reading took place Aug. 4; a final vote could come at the next regular council meeting.
Zoning code rewrite
The new Planning and Zoning Code would replace Part Eleven of Powell's codified ordinances. Planning Director Logan Stang told the Development Committee on May 6 that staff had been working on the rewrite since January 2024.
The rewrite aims to fix that.
Under the current code, a development project can require four to five public hearings, each taking roughly two months. The Liberty Reserve development went through seven hearings; the project at 80 East Olentangy required six. Under the proposed code, those projects would have needed four or five and one or two hearings, respectively.
Key changes include making the sketch plan review optional, shifting City Council's review to the preliminary development plan stage instead of the final stage, and creating a distinction between major and minor development plan reviews. Minor changes could be approved by staff alone.
"The current process has a lot of steps that are not very clear and overlap with one another, which has posed a lot of challenges for some of the development projects that have come through before," Stang said at the May 6 committee meeting.
A companion measure, Ordinance 2026-15, amends the city's fee schedule to align with the rewrite. Both ordinances received their second reading Aug. 4 after a first reading July 21. The Planning and Zoning Commission reviewed the code update at its June 10 and July 15 meetings before forwarding it to council.
Council passed a marijuana moratorium on July 21 tying the city's retail cannabis ban to Dec. 31, 2026, or the effective date of the new zoning code, whichever comes first.
What's next
The zoning code ordinances need a final vote at a future council meeting. The Development Committee meets next on Sept. 1 at 6:30 p.m., and the Finance Committee meets Aug. 11 at 6:30 p.m. for a capital improvement plan review.
