Oct. 12--Four years before anyone can lay a hand on Whitehall Community Park, government officials already are rallying to protect it.

"No one will touch it while I'm in town," Mayor John Wolfe said. "It's pretty much a moot issue."

Although there is no official plan to sell the park, a proposed charter amendment on the November ballot aims to ensure that it won't be developed suddenly after a moratorium on selling it ends.

The Whitehall City Council normally listens to an issue such as property sale at three regular meetings before voting on it. However, they have the option to enact an emergency ordinance immediately to meet deadlines.

The charter amendment would forbid the City Council from rushing the sale of city property, although it already is rare.

Residents need time to scrutinize a proposal to sell the property or to work toward a referendum against a sale, said Richard Janusz, a member of the charter review commission. The commission only meets every five years, so this was the last chance for it to consider the issue before a deed restriction on the park property ends.

"Whitehall owns a lot of acres and anything is possible," Janusz said. "This property is for the public, and the public should have an opportunity to weigh in when the deed limitation is up."

Rockwell International donated the 93-acre Whitehall Community Park to the city in 1989 with the stipulation that it had to remain parkland until 2013. The company was closing its East Side aircraft plant and no longer needed a park for employees.

The property was appraised at $2.7 million at the time.

Councilwoman Jacquelyn Thompson said she supports the charter amendment because the park is in a real-estate hot spot near Port Columbus.

"Everything in Whitehall is for sale," she said. "We need to have green places where you can commune with nature."

Other council members said Thompson is overreacting, and the mayor said it seemed like several minor issues made the ballot this year instead of more important questions such as whether the person in charge of the city's finances should be elected or appointed.

"If the council is going to divest city property, there is a good reason," he said. "I've been around for 45 years, and to my knowledge there has never been an issue with this."

The city also is more likely to consider leasing, not selling, some of the park property for development along Hamilton Road, Councilman Bob Bailey said. The income could help fund improvements to the main portion of the park.

"We can sit on that property and get a new park bench here and there and nothing will change, or we can try to leverage some of this stagnant property around the perimeter," he said. "All we're doing is looking at options."

egibson@dispatch.com

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