Issues:

McCann and the environment

I am not a crunchy-Granola kind of guy, not a purist, and not thinking that state government can take us back to some pristine Eden. But I am an environmentalist, because we all have to be as long as we are on this planet and have no other one available. The Ohio we know is losing much of its most productive cropland to shopping centers and subdivisions every day

The kind of growth we see is a threat to air quality because it requires more people to drive more cars greater distances - putting more pollutants into the air. It is a threat to water quality because more pavement, parking lots and driveways shed more water into our rivers and streams instead of into the soil. Fertilizers run off lawns and golf courses into the same waterways.

The greatest threat to the environment is Ohio's lack of a coherent land-use and urban design policy. We have not addressed the factors leading to urban sprawl, farmland loss, duplication of infrastructure and dependency on gasoline and privately financed transportation. State law does not specifically allow, much less encourage, cities and counties, or other neighboring jurisdictions, to jointly plan their interconnected futures.

Central Ohio has challenges with the Darby watershed, the lack of urban greenspace, and the Olentangy watershed. Our land-use policies are unable to resolve conflict such as the Columbus-Dublin-Hilliard debate over the Hayden Run development. There are no policies to prevent Ohio cities from poaching each other's businesses or dumping the costs of problems on their neighbors.

As your state representative, I intend not only to address the challenges facing Central Ohio, but all of Ohio. We are capable of much more than we have done. If we can recover a burning river, we can create sustainable development, get control of urban sprawl, and reduce our dependence on foreign and domestic oil and coal.

We need to get the best minds together, and look at long-term energy policy. We need to reconsider old assumptions, and question new ones. Why is the creation of a clean, sustainable Ohio considered a cost, rather than an investment? New thinking is needed at the statehouse, in the Ohio EPA, and with all levels of government. I can play the role of being the bridge between the needs of the communities and the resources of the state.

Primarily, we need to somehow alter the economic equation for developer's short term benefits versus the long-term costs to Ohio. Currently, developers add value to farm land, collect a fee or upside from flipping it, and then move on to the next deal. They have a right to make deals and develop land, but also a responsibility to do it well and in a way that does not pass on costs to taxpayers.

Planning has become privatized and has become fragmented because of our home-rule policies, our lack of planning ethic, and our misguided belief that markets solve all problems. Farming families all too often rely on the development value of the farm to provide for their retirement, causing future costs to their children and to the community. We can do better to recover value from development rights by changing policy and counting social costs.

Developers will sometimes offer to build freeway intersections. Central Ohio has three privately financed interchanges. Developers have built these with leveraged funds, designed them to support the initial use, and then asked the state to pay for the upgrades caused by the newly created demand. Instead of new interchanges on soybean fields we should rebuild our inner cities.

We must recognize that significant parts of Ohio are suitable for recreational use. Our hunting and fishing areas need to be enhanced and preserved.

The greatest tool we have in saving the environment is the re-direction of our transportation infrastructure. I was advocating projects such as the Cleveland hub and the Ohio Mobility Partners early and often. By linking Ohio cities with passenger rail, providing for the financing of transportation projects with the gasoline tax, creating a new deal for the railroads, we can completely change the look of the Ohio environment.

Transportation enhancement can break Ohio away from the pack. Ohio can then complete with California with its ability to move people, freight and goods between cities and between Ohio and the rest of the country.