timeline under our ownership

July 2024 - Purchased property

Years ago, this property was listed for sale through a real estate agent. I inquired but did not purchase it at that time, but I retained the contact information for the seller. In the middle of 2024, it became clear my growing snow business needed more room to operate. So, I reached out to the seller, and we reached a deal to purchase this ground.

October 2025 -  Visual Barrier Created 

  As I considered how I wanted to use this property, one of my goals was to retain as much crop land, for as long as possible. One of my company’s main needs is seasonal storage of our snowplows. I began to envision a contractor’s storage yard in the area between the tree line and Wildcat Road. I drive past this area often and I want this property to add value to the community, not be an eyesore. So, in October I hired a local excavator to haul in thousands of yards of soil to create an Earthen Visual Barrier along US-40. All said and done, that Visual Barrier cost $45,000 and once seed grows and it is landscaped, it will be an awesome sight to neighbors and motorists on US-40. It’s an investment that I was happy to make, and will help insulate the public’s views from the future planned use.

October 2025 – Talked with Cody

During the process of hauling in dirt for the Visual Barrier, Cody from Bethel Township stopped over, handed out his card to an excavator, and asked me to call him. I gave him a call and explained that I wanted to use the area behind the Visual Barrier as a Contractor’s Storage Yard and that eventually, I would like to build a building on the crop land portion. He loved the idea and told me that I didn’t need to get any permits to push dirt, or dump gravel and that my intended uses were perfect for the property. I told Cody that I would be adding gravel eventually, and as a courtesy, I would call and tell him before that, so that if anyone called, he would know what to tell them. I ended up leaving a voicemail for Cody in Early December telling him we were going to push dirt and spread gravel soon.

December 2025 – Talked with Julie

Later in December, I received a call from an unknown number. I answered it and it was Julie, one of our Township Trustees. Apparently, Cody was no longer with the township, and she was covering his role, responding to my courtesy voicemail I left for him. She said she had some questions about my property on US-40. She proceeded to ask if I was building self-storage units, to which I told her no, and then explained to her my vision.

January 2026 – Letter from Township Lawyer

In January, as a result of speaking with Julie, the Township's lawyer sent me a letter stating that the area I planned to use as my contractor’s storage yard was zoned residential and that using it as planned would be a zoning violation. I was quite surprised by this news and, as you can see, have not been using it as a contractor’s storage yard yet, because of that letter. 

April 2026 – What’s next? 

I’ve talked with Julie a handful of times about this property, and how to rezone it so we all can be happy with the outcome . From a real estate perspective, having one legal parcel with multiple zonings on it is a very not-ideal situation. For example, how do you determine property line setbacks from a nonexistent property line between the two zoning types? A long tenured, prior township trustee told me that there have been a handful of multi-zoned properties in the past and when applicants have requested one zoning for the whole property, they have all been granted, as requested, 100% of the time. I'm hopeful that is the case with my rezoning application, too. On the township’s webpage, all the trustee’s state their desire to keep Bethel Township rural; allowing my +/- 2-acre Contractor Storage Yard to the West of the tree line (and not in the crop land) preserves 2 acres of crop land in the township, which seems to align with everyone's goals. I have submitted our rezoning application and thank you in advance for your support.

May 2026 – The Near Future  

Until the rezoning is decided upon, I have stopped hauling stone into the property. After listening to the Township Meeting Recordings, and discussing it with Julie, the driveway on Wildcat will no longer be used, at least temporarily. Finally, an Engineering firm has been retained to submit drawings for ODOT to reclassify the US-40 driveway. If ODOT approves of the driveway reclassification, the driveway on US-40 will be the primary access point.