Episode Twenty-Seven - Council Preview (7/16/26)

A preview of Wilmington City Council’s July 16th meetings, workshop at 6, regular meeting at 7. On the agenda: third readings on the AZEK Group’s Prairie Road zoning and annexation, a same-night second and third reading on updated city salary ranges, and a correction on the fire department restructuring ordinance after an emergency clause quietly disappeared from an earlier draft. Also covers an unusually placed executive session ahead of a data center zoning vote, and a federal court order in Sharp v. Wilmington that puts the AWS project’s next steps squarely in council’s hands, with the agenda giving no indication of how they plan to respond.

Transcript

Opening

Speaker 0:00

Hey everyone, it's Matt. It is a loaded meeting this week, so let's just get right into it. This is Wilmington Weekly with Matt Purkey.

Workshop

Speaker 0:18

All right, council meets tomorrow, July 16th, workshop at 6, regular meeting at 7, both in council chambers. The workshop is light. Council will review minutes from July 2nd, hear an update on resolution R2628, the Nature Works grant authorization, and discuss resolution R2630 on utility billing. There's no draft text for R2630 in the meeting packet as of this recording, so this looks like an early discussion rather than something up for a vote. One thing worth noting, it's listed as a resolution, not an ordinance, and utility rates in this city are set by ordinance. So whatever this discussion turns out to be, if it ends up touching rates themselves, watch for it to resurface later as separate ordinance language. Better than me trying to prognosticate here anyway. If anything of substance happens, of course, we'll touch on it in the wrap-up.

Regular Meeting

Speaker 1:18

Old business at tomorrow's meeting has real substance too. The zoning ordinance for the AZEC Group's project on Prairie Road, O2629, is up for a third reading, and it's worth watching given pushback we've heard from residents on Prairie Road at the last meeting and in prior meetings. That third reading, along with the annexation of the same roughly 89 acres under O2625, would complete both of those legislative steps for this project. If council moves forward is scheduled. The Douglas and South Wall Street traffic control change and the FTA Title VI transit program are also up for third readings. Nothing dramatic there, but they'll close out tomorrow night if council votes yes.

What to Watch

Speaker 2:04

One more to watch. Council is scheduled to give both a second and third reading to 02634, the ordinance updating salary ranges and classifications for city employees in the same meeting. That's two readings in one night. At the last workshop, Paul Fear told Council his tax commissioner, Mark Jones, would need to shed more light on the details. I'm hoping Jones is there this week to walk through it, since that's a lot to digest without really any explanation. And one correction to flag from earlier reporting. No longer includes the emergency clause that was in an earlier draft. That section 12 has been cut. That clause would have let the ordinance take effect immediately and waive the normal three-reading requirement. The version on tomorrow's agenda for a second reading doesn't have that language. I mentioned the emergency clause in past coverage, so I want to be clear as it stands now, it's gone. One more thing worth watching tomorrow. At the last meeting, the deputy law director asked council to hold just a second reading on zoning text amendment 02633, saying the office needed more time to discuss. Tomorrow it's back for third reading. And this time there's an executive session on the agenda positioned at the very start of the meeting, before committee reports, before old business. The agenda states it's being held under ORC Section 121.22 G three for conferences with an attorney concerning pending or imminent litigation. In my past counsel experience, executive sessions typically land near the end of a meeting, not the beginning. I wasn't in the room for the agenda decisions, so I can't tell you exactly what was being discussed. My best guess here is that this session touches O twenty six thirty-three or the order issued recently in the Sharp v. Wilmington case. I can't prove it either way. If I'm wrong, I'll say so in the next episode. That case, Sharp v. Wilmington, is the one challenging three ordinances tied to the AWS data center project. On Tuesday, Judge Jeffrey Hopkins entered an order agreed to by the city and plaintiffs that requires City Council to ratify, replace, or otherwise reenact those three ordinances before the Planning Commission can act on the Amazon site plan again. I'll get into what each of those paths appear to mean procedurally and what's at stake in the wrap-up once we know what council's decided. There are clearly a lot of moving pieces surrounding this project right now. I expect to know more after the meeting, but I find it strange that there's no other mention of the court's order or any stated intention to act on it anywhere on tomorrow's agenda. The order itself doesn't set a hard deadline, but it does tie Planning Commission action on the site plan to council actually getting this done. That's a real constraint on the project timeline, and right now there's nothing on the record showing council's next step. Perhaps we'll learn more tomorrow night. Speaking of Planning Commission, they also met this week on Tuesday. I'm still working through that meeting and I'll have more on it soon. Nothing on the agenda I've seen so far points to action on the AWS site plan itself, but I wanted to go through the full record before I say anything more.

Closing

Speaker 5:46

And that's what I'm watching heading into tomorrow. Looking for some answers to some questions? We'll see if we get them. I'll be back this weekend with the wrap up.