Next year’s student-residents of Copper Beech will enjoy more green space around their homes and less blacktop after last night’s Bowling Green City Council meeting.
Requests were made by the developers of Copper Beech to reduce the number of parking spaces for development than were originally asked for.
Overall, the developers wanted to eliminate 332 spaces to make room for more green space. Citing a need to maintain enough parking for future residents, City Council members chose to only eliminate 240 of the parking spaces.
However, a bond has been made a part of the ordinance for the next four years. This bond will preserve the money for extra Copper Beech parking spaces, in case the developers decide a few years down the road that more spaces are necessary.
John Mura, at-large representative on City Council, believes that future student-residents will only benefit from the beautification changes made to Copper Beech’s parking situation.
Replacing green space with blacktop will not hurt the student-resident’s parking opportunities because — according to Mura — the landlord’s have said they will strictly enforce the number of spaces available with the number of cars residents have.
The ordinance amending Bowling Green’s nuisance party law was also read for the second of three times last night.
During the open forum period, University senior Nathan Nickens asked council members to consider holding a public hearing on BGSU grounds so that students who live both on and off-campus can more easily speak to their representatives.
Ward 2 representative Mike Zickar expressed an interest in an on-campus public hearing, and said he would speak with USG President Alex Wright about making the proper arrangements.
The attention paid to potential nuisance party law changes has excited Zickar about the potential for citizen and student involvement in city politics.
“Introducing that revision has gotten people thinking,” said Zickar, adding that he’s received letters and phone calls about the nuisance party law from his constituents over the past few weeks.
A public hearing will already be held at 7 p.m. on April 4 at 304 N. Church St., where citizens can go speak freely about the nuisance party law amendment, prior to that night’s 8 p.m. meeting.
Off-campus students who live in a house should also know that there are rules to be followed when it comes to their trash containers.
Public Works Director Bill Blair asked council to remind their constituents that garbage containers need to be at the curb by 7:30 a.m., and to make sure parked cars do not block access. A city ordinance also requires citizens to pull their containers back up beside their homes by 7 p.m. that evening.
In additional news, the Bowling Green Citizens for Smart Growth wrote City Council to praise the current enforcement of BG’s zoning ordinance, which limits the number of unrelated people who can live in a home to three.
