City Council Votes to Take Property

Zanesville, OH- Zanesville City Council passed an ordinance that will give them control of land purchased by the Anchor Church.

The ordinance passed on a 7 to 2 vote. At question was a 3.9 acre piece acre piece of property at 2 Beaumont Street in Zanesville. During the meeting Mayor Don Mason offered to raise purchase of the property to $350,000. City Council believes the property is necessary for the purpose of creating or adding to a public park.

“We had an ordinance before council for council to decide whether or not they wanted to take the property on Beaumont Street, by eminent domain. The Ohio Revised Code allows the city to take property from businesses or individuals for certain qualified purposes,” Law Director Dave Tarbert. “If you look at the property lines and I can let the mayor speak to this, but there’s a park to the left of this property, and there’s a city park to the right of this property. This property was right in the middle of those two parks. So it does make sense to us as a as a public park.”

The Anchor Church had members at the meeting to speak on behalf of the church, they declined an on camera interview.