Huber Heights Pulls Emergency Clause from Controversial Ordinance

The move keeps the referendum option alive for those opposed to Carriage Trails 2.0

Earlier this week, this publication provided a discussion on the rezoning of the Carriage Trails 2.0 development in Huber Heights.

The original story discussed how this vote was being treated as an Emergency Ordinance, that was allowed by the Huber Heights City Charter, but appeared to be a misuse of the powers the charter provided. Adopting the measure as an Emergency Ordinance would immediately allow two things to happen at once. First, the Ordinance would be effective immediately, rather than the customary 30-day waiting period for such pieces of legislation. Second, it would take the ability of citizens to gather signatures and put the measure on the ballot under the City Charter’s referendum procedures.

Well, as quickly as the emergency clause was put in the proposed ordinance, this publication discovered that the clause has now been removed, as evidenced by Section 4 of the revised ordinance below.

So, what happened?

Well, in order for ordinances to be adopted as emergency measures, a 2/3rds majority of the entire council would have needed to vote in favor of the ordinance. While there may be majority support for the ordinance, there may not have been super-majority support for the emergency clause in the ordinance. Regardless, someone made the call to remove the emergency clause.

Now, the ordinance can be still approved Monday night by the City Council. The City Council will hold the first reading of the ordinance and a public hearing. But, the City Council may decide, with a 2/3rds majority, to waive the two-reading rule on the ordinance and adopt the measure instantly. That would begin the thirty-day clock for those wanting to put the measure up for a vote through the referendum process.

It should be noted that if a motion fails to waive the two-reading rule, the ordinance is not killed. The measure would be brought up at the next meeting of City Council for the second reading and a vote would be taken to approve or deny the ordinance, with a simple majority making the decision.

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