PORT CLINTON — On a blustery fall day, whitecaps rolled across Lake Erie and gusts howled through a Port Clinton park bordering the lakeshore and the Portage River.

The nearly 14 acres of city-owned land known as Water Works Park is admired by park enthusiasts for its expansive waterfront views and easy walking distance from residential streets and downtown stores. Business boosters looking to attract new development have eyed it for those same enviable features.

For years, residents have debated which way the winds will blow.

How residents vote Nov. 4 on a proposed ordinance that, if approved, would require a subsequent public vote before the city sells, transfers, or leases any city parkland could provide that long-sought direction.

Those urging a yes vote contend the ordinance would give residents a voice and a vote on future projects — a chance to weigh in before development brings permanent change.

Opponents think it’s a stall tactic intended to thwart a proposed $66 million plan to develop Water Works Park into a residential and retail mixed-use complex.

‘Emotional issue’

If passed, the ordinance would require a citywide vote at a general election to secure residents’ support before parkland could be sold or leased to Washington Properties, a Medina, Ohio-based company that pitched the most recent development plan for the site. Without the ordinance, the property could be sold or leased with a majority vote of the Port Clinton City Council.

In response to the threat of development, the political action committee Citizens Organized for Responsible Development (CORD) circulated petitions to put the proposed ordinance on the ballot.

Issue 6 has divided neighbors and heightened tensions in the Ottawa County seat of about 6,000. Red yard signs shout opposing views from both sides of leaf-strewn streets. The back-and-forth, yes-then-no lawn campaigns stretch block after block. The debate reaches from front yards to downtown shops to city hall.

Mayor Vincent Leone, who has pushed for the project, called the park issue a lightning rod — one thing he and his opponents agree on.

“It’s a very emotional issue,” said Rick Noderer, a former councilman and CORD spokesman.

An ongoing matter

The city wrestled for decades with the waterfront area and accomplished little.

In 1993, officials discussed enhancing Water Works Park and other spots with streetscapes, walking and biking paths, and additional features to spruce up an area described at the time as a tarnished, long-neglected jewel.

In 2001, there was talk of opening a Great Lakes museum in a former city building at Water Works, part of a wider plan that was met with controversy.

In 2007, council backed a developer’s plan to build a water park, hotel, and condominiums on the property. Later that year, voters, by a margin of 1,335 to 848, agreed to rezone the 13.8-acre park to allow commercial uses, but the project fell apart and the development never occurred.

The successful rezoning opened the door for the latest development proposal. Mayor Leone has led negotiations this year with Mike Rose, the head of Washington Properties. The plan includes $60 million in private investment and $6 million in public contributions. The mixed-use project would develop about 15 percent of the park, Mr. Rose said. The rest of the property would be maintained as a park, with enhancements such as a boardwalk, and the public access would be protected, officials said.

Uncertainty prompted by the upcoming vote has delayed progress some, Mr. Rose said. If the ballot issue is defeated, he said he will be ready to move quickly with a project proposal.

Mr. Rose would not say what he would do if voters approve the ballot issue, triggering a future vote to sell or lease land before he could develop. November, 2015, is the soonest a second public vote could occur.

“I’m not prepared to answer that. I guess we’d have to wait and see and evaluate it at that time,” he said.

Washington Properties gave $500 to Friends for Port Clinton, the group campaigning against the ballot issue, according to a finance report filed last week. The Friends group raised $5,175 for the campaign period that ran through Oct. 15. CORD raised $3,310 during the same time span.

‘Spirited debate’

The issue is contentious enough that some don’t want to talk about it, and others, like the Ottawa County Democratic Party, declined to take a side.

“[There are] Democrats on both sides of the fence; there are Republicans on both sides of the fence,” said Democratic Party Chairman Adrienne Hines. “We are not taking a position except to say that it’s [a] spirited debate. This is what elections are all about.”

Drawings, but no specific plans, have been submitted for the Water Works project, and many details remain to be worked out.

Mr. Noderer thinks that’s a problem that could be addressed by requiring a future vote by residents.

“This issue is whether they want to have the right to have a say in what happens to their parks,” he said. “If the citizens have a vote, then city council has to be more responsible and more responsive to the residents and more open.”

Mayor Leone counters that a yes vote hinders the ability of elected officials to do their jobs.

“They are basically handcuffing the hands of council to make those decisions on the behalf of citizens, and that’s what they are elected to do,” he said.

He points to the rezoning of Water Works Park as evidence the public wants development and said the referendum on the rezoning shows that “checks and balances” to council decisions already exist.

The ordinance would pertain to all city parks, which number more than a half dozen, but none of the other sites is being considered for development, Mayor Leone said.

Mr. Noderer said the language includes all parks because city officials have shown a willingness to let go of public property, and the push for development won’t necessarily stop at Water Works.

Development

The city needs to encourage economic development, said Roseann Hickman, who owns a hair and tanning salon not far from the park and is a member of Friends for Port Clinton.

“We feel that this issue is detrimental to the future of that property and to our downtown,” she said. “Every person interested in coming into downtown Port Clinton for anything is watching this issue closely.”

Ms. Hickman considers it a waste of time to vote on the proposed ordinance, saying the community made up its mind when residents agreed to rezone the property seven years ago.

Other downtown business owners also have taken a strong interest. Dina Rodgers, owner of the vintage home decor and jewelry shop Lilly & Gert’s, can’t vote on the issue because she lives outside the city limits, but she and her customers have followed the campaigns closely. The waterfront development plan includes sprucing up parts of the park, and the economic growth and park improvements are needed to keep young adults in the city, she said.

CORD has ideas for Water Works Park too. The group wants to transform it into a “showplace” park, and residents can have a voice in its future, Mr. Noderer said.

“It’s a monumental decision. It’s not probably even a once-in-a-lifetime decision. It’s probably once in a hundred years because once buildings are put here they’re going to stay for their useful life,” he said. “There’s no going back.”

Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.

First Published October 26, 2014, 5:20 a.m.