No deal - how Fairview, Girard citizens won a reset of Erie Co. Farm business park plan

The words "It's a done deal" come to mind immediately.

We were told by many that there was nothing that we could do or say, that it was a waste of our time and energy, that the County Executive, the Erie County Redevelopment Authority, Erie County Council and two sets of township supervisors — from Fairview and Girard — were not going to change their minds. We still felt that what had happened was wrong and had been handled in a questionable way, to say the least. "It's a done deal." We meant to change that mindset, despite the naysayers.

This is our perspective about our protest against the proposed new business park in Fairview. Events moved quickly and our learning curve was huge, but our group had a willingness to work together for a worthy cause and a desire to right a wrong we felt had been done to our communities. Our goals are still to be realized.

Two huge takeaways from our experience are that government representatives need to remember over everything else that they represent us — we the people — not their own interests, and also that organized protest can work.

We are still finding, even now in September, that our county executive, Brenton Davis, insists on publicly belittling our concerns, efforts, and much of what we reiterated about helping existing sites market their property to help entice businesses to those properties. A recent example was on the "TalkErie" radio show. We are not suggesting at all that Erie County buy those properties, but he insists on delivering that message. We spoke with thousands of people who are against using that farmland for anything other than farming, yet he continues to refer to the 200 people against the proposal. He continues to not listen to his constituents, in our view.

How it began

It all started with an Erie Times-News article seen on GoErie.com about the proposed "Fairview 2.0 Business Park" and the property transfer of prime Erie County farmland that was published a day before the Erie County Council vote. This brought disbelief. There had been no notice to anyone in the neighborhood, no notice of hearings, nothing. A page-long discourse was quickly written and then printed 60 times, and a few miles were walked to distribute the flyers to neighbors. We found that we were not the only ones in the dark as others voiced their worries, concerns and anger about what they felt had been done behind their backs in such a cavalier manner.

That flyer was eventually uploaded to social media and was shared through several Facebook groups, joining an evergrowing slew of posts and comments as people discovered what was going on. Calls were made by various individuals to the county executive's office, only to be met with more of the same "It's a done deal" statements and comments of "NIMBY" (not in my back yard) from the administration. County Council members didn't return calls until later, if at all. Our township supervisors seemed to be in the dark as well, some more than others.

The July 11 property transfer from the people of Erie County to the Erie County Redevelopment Authority passed 5-2 with our County Council 7th District representative, Ellen Schauerman, unfortunately, leading the way. A couple of the council members, Andre Horton and Mary Rennie, voted against it, stating that the public hearing process had not been followed correctly.

Public outcry prompted the July 25 Girard High School informational meeting with several hundred people attending, showing that the public did not agree with the proposed business park. Attendees were loudly suspicious of Erie County officials' claims that the property transfer was, as County Director of Administration Doug Smith and ERCDA CEO Tina Mengine said, a "first step" in the public engagement process. County Executive Davis and our County Council representative Schauerman were not in attendance. Concerns were raised about the legality of using American Rescue Plan Act grant monies for this proposal. That is still in question.

Citizens unite around common cause

This meeting was the impetus that eventually led to the formation of our group, the West County Citizens Coalition, including: an IT professional, a schoolteacher, an environmentalist, a business owner, an administrative assistant, a retired township supervisor, and an engineer. Later, others joined the group until there were about 10 or 12 active members. A couple of us had grown up on farms. Others were converts to a peaceful and beautiful country area. A couple in the group had been involved in other protests and added their input and ideas. Others had seen family members succeed in their grassroots protests in the past. All of us were troubled by the ramifications of destroying superior farmland, affecting the environment, property values and bringing traffic issues.

On Aug. 1, we decided to meet for the first time as a group to organize our thoughts, documents, important points and goals. There were several differing political viewpoints scattered around this group of high-energy members and the first rule was no politics, and this was respected thereafter, happily. We wanted to show that we were for responsible job creation in appropriate places and also to maintain prime farmland. Agriculture is a huge industry and this property has been productively owned and farmed by the people of Erie County since 1917. Progress should not mean destruction of a valuable and limited natural resource. Water, traffic and environmental issues were on our list.

All of us were disturbed by the lack of transparency and what we felt was the unethical way that the county had transferred the property, along with what we saw as misleading, incorrect and contradictory statements being made by the county administration and the ECRDA, including in public meetings and on social media. We and others in the public felt that the people of Erie County were being disparaged by the Davis administration when they suggested that the issue was complex and most wouldn't understand — implying, in our view, that the people of the county were uneducated, unwilling to change and saying we were against job creation.

Speaking with thousands of people from the area brought many viewpoints, but the overwhelming number of opinions about the lack of public hearings and ignoring the correct overall process were accompanied by shaking heads and disgust. The overall lack of respect for our prime farmland, for what we all knew in our hearts about what that property meant in the history of Girard and Fairview, saddened so many people that we spoke to. We experienced growing doubt in anything that was said by the leaders of the project.

A bright spot came on our horizon as we discovered that an ordinance had been proposed by Councilman Horton and put on the next County Council agenda to rescind the property transfer, allowing it to go back into the hands of Erie County. We were told again to not get our hopes up — it will most likely fail. One step forward, one step back.

Learning and outreach

In order to prepare for future council and informational meetings, our group decided to have various members each attack specific points in more detail, especially because public input is limited to a certain number of minutes at meetings. One member typically tried to hit on all of the points in general, but this strategy helped us get those points across.

At the Aug. 14 Fairview Township informational meeting there was little doubt as to what the vast majority of the over 400 attendees thought of the land transfer and what was now known correctly as the "industrial park" proposal. Much research had been done at the courthouse and elsewhere, and through filing Right-To-Know requests for documents, we had discovered the truth. These were gradually being brought to the light of day. The existing Fairview Business Park on Klier Drive was brought forward again as something with which County Executive Davis could entice possible new businesses. Davis maintains government should not be Realtors. However, as we see it, that's exactly what he wants to do with the Erie County Farm property.

We provided proof of emails that he and others in government knew that the existing Fairview business park owners had been more than willing to combine lots, negotiate price and that the lots had full and up-to-date infrastructure, prior to both public informational meetings and the property transfer. He did not help his case that evening in Fairview as he dismissed various people's concerns and made the public angry by using up their limited question and comment time by, in our view, repeating incorrect statements; not answering questions; and insulting professionals in attendance who were there to give correct information about other usable properties, and more.

We started to receive valuable input and advice from people who knew about the ins and outs of government dealings and our little group learned and learned.

The Erie County Council meeting on Aug. 15 was the first one that many in our group had ever attended — let alone spoke at. Our first township meetings were under some of our collective belts as well. We were learning as we went along. The first reading of the ordinance to rescind the property transfer was completed along with much public comment to encourage County Council to vote that way. The first of our petitions was given to council (the current overall signature count is over 2,000).

Opinion pieces started showing up on social media and in mainstream media. We did our part by continuing to urge people in our communities, via phone calls, emails and social media to contact their government representatives and to voice their opinions. We did not give up, but we were unsure of what was going to happen at the next County Council meeting. We were still being told that "It's a done deal."

The day before the important Aug. 29 County Council meeting, the county executive's administration amazingly took to the media again to let everyone know that we were mistaken, that the property transfer had never taken place, and that there was no need for County Council to vote on anything. Once again, they were trying to make us look like uneducated rubes from the sticks, in our view. That only furthered our resolve.

Land transfer rescinded, more work to do

The County Council meeting was attended by many people who spoke in favor of Horton's ordinance rescinding the property transfer. Against all of the naysayers' opinions, that ordinance passed 7-0, our first goal completed successfully! We were thankful that County Council listened to their constituents' concerns. Things were not, in fact, "a done deal."

We still have a ways to go. The property with its superior farmland is lying unused and full of invasive weeds. Will farming now return to what we recognize as the "Erie County Farm," or will the county continue to lose leasing income and potentially cause taxpayers additional expenses? The current lease that was terminated is in question. Farmers who have leased the property in the past want to get onto the land while they can still put in a winter crop. Will County Council take action on this?

From Davis: Erie County executive: Why the proposed Fairview business park should matter to all of us

We still have several goals to achieve and are working on those, the first being to have County Council and Fairview Township rezone the property parcels as agricultural, then eventually have the property registered in an Agricultural Preservation Program. That would ensure the intended use of that prime land for farming for future generations.

Our group continues to be diligent in following government activities more closely and would encourage others to do the same in their areas. We are happy to see a growing involvement of people around Erie County in what is happening in their own communities and we stand in awe of the power of the people, knowing that when people come together for a common and worthy goal, things can change.

Valerie Pesta and the other members of the West County Citizens Coalition.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: How Fairview, Girard citizens fought Davis business park plan on farm