Bill Bogantz, Guest Columnist Published 3:41 p.m. ET July 12, 2020

The Board of Trustees of Liberty Township, Licking County, Ohio, wants to take the opportunity to address the rampant misinformation regarding two applications for zoning certificates to permit two group homes proposed to be constructed and located in Liberty

Township. First, the Board of Trustees does not review applications for zoning certificates, does not have the authority to approve or reject them, and, contrary to baseless statements, has not rejected either application.

Second, each time the applications have been submitted to Liberty Township, and they have been submitted twice, they have been incomplete, and have failed to include all of the necessary information required for these types of applications under the Liberty Township Zoning Resolution. If Liberty Township receives completed applications, they will be reviewed by the Zoning Department, which will make the initial determination and identify any next steps that may be required, in accordance with Liberty Townships process for handling such applications.

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Third, Great Lakes Property Development, a third-party builder, was the stated applicant for these two proposals, not the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities. Liberty Township has made multiple requests for the additional information that is missing from the applications, on June 16th and June 21st. Finally, on June 25th, the applications were denied by the Zoning Department for lack of complete information. The truth and facts are that Liberty Township has yet to receive a set of complete applications, and hence has not made any determination based on building or use.

It is unfortunate that the Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities has found it necessary to resort to the court of public opinion rather than work with the builder to submit completed application materials to Liberty Township. If the Editorial Board has additional information to support its unfounded assertions, please provide thati nformation to Liberty Township and, if no such information exists, the Board of Trustees requests a retraction of its June 28, 2020 editorial.

Bill Bogantz, Trustee, Liberty Township, Licking County, Ohio

The Licking County Board of Developmental Disabilities disputes the claims that their applications were incomplete. Also, while the original editorial did wrongly imply that the trustees formally rejected the project in avote, The Advocate's editorial board stands by its belief that the trustees helped foster a situation where the board of developmental disabilities felt unwanted in Liberty Township. This in practice killed the project from moving forward in the area, which the editorial board believes is more important than whether the trustees held a formal vote on the issue.

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Liberty Township responds to criticism over DD project in Licking County - The Newark Advocate