‘This is our home’: Tiffin family says property was pulled into industrial annexation without consent

A proposed 149 acre industrial annexation that is not yet before Tiffin City Council nonetheless dominated Monday night's meeting, pitting the city's defense of its planning process against neighboring residents who say their homes became pieces of somebody else's development without their consent. City Engineer Matt Watson walked to the public podium carrying a stack of paper. He distributed copies to councilmembers, the administration and people sitting in the audience. The packet contained questions an Advertiser Tribune reporter had sent him, his written responses, two recorded sewer service agreements, mapping of the city's sewer agreements and the industrial concept plan that has been at the center of the dispute. "I came here this evening because I wanted to make sure that that same transparency is being provided to city council and the public," Watson said. What followed was roughly 17 minutes from a department head who has been referenced repeatedly in council discussions over the annexation and, more recently, in newspaper coverage. Watson defended why his office drew the plan, explained how much work went into responding to the records request and eventually put a question directly to council: if Tiffin does not intend to enforce the sewer agreements that help make this annexation possible, tell him. Later, Anna Flechtner and Lindsay Parkins described the same proposed development from the other side of the property line. 'Please let me know' City Engineer Matt Watson speaks at a Tiffin City Council meeting, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Screenshot via YouTube) Watson told council that his office prepares each site specific sewer service agreement from a template drafted by the law director, coordinates its execution and records it with the Seneca County Recorder's Office before a property owner receives a permit to connect to city sewer. He said 364 agreements have been executed and recorded. A 365th was sitting on his desk awaiting a check from the finance department. At $70 apiece to record, Watson calculated that the city has spent $25,550 in recording costs alone. Including staff time, he estimated Tiffin has invested more than $50,000 in the agreements. "That being said, if we are wrong to enforce them, wrong to include them on a concept plan for a basis of discussion, and do not plan to enforce them as a city, please let me know so that I can remove this responsibility from my office's plate and stop wasting city dollars and time developing, executing, and recording these agreements," Watson said. The agreements sit at the center of the annexation fight. As TiffinOhio.net previously reported, the proposal uses an expedited annexation process. Two properties with recorded sewer agreements — the Flechtner home and four corner parcels held by CLS Tiffin LLC — are what connect developer Lenny Clouse's property to the existing city limits. Clouse's farmland itself covers roughly 143 acres. With the Flechtner property and CLS Tiffin parcels included, the proposed annexation totals 148.941 acres. Who drew the industrial plan A City of Tiffin Engineering Department concept plan splits roughly 149 acres of Hopewell Township into 11 industrial lots. The document is undated. The mayor calls it "a drawing, a sketch, nothing official." (Photo: City of Tiffin Engineering Department) An Advertiser Tribune story published Saturday reported from city records that Tiffin's engineering department drew an 11 lot industrial concept for the Clouse property at U.S. 224 and West State Route 18 in December 2024. The plan's legend includes a category labeled "Land With Enforceable Sewer Service Agreements," according to the newspaper, with the Flechtner property and CLS Tiffin parcels shaded under it. Watson did not dispute that his office created the plan. He instead explained why. Discussions about potential development of the Clouse property stretch across multiple city administrations, he told council. The land appeared in a 2019 housing opportunity analysis prepared for the Tiffin Seneca Economic Partnership by DiSalvo Development Advisors and again in a 2020 multi jurisdictional plan. "There had been recent changes in the administration and I was the only person still involved in the project coordination meetings dating back to the initial discussions," Watson read from his written response. "I took it upon myself to develop a plan to conceptually depict the site's opportunities as an industrial park." The Advertiser Tribune also reported that Watson's Dec. 16, 2024 email transmitting the drawing to Mayor Lee Wilkinson described it as following a Friday conversation in Watson's office in which the mayor raised concern about future land for industrial expansion. Watson did not address that email during his council remarks Monday, and councilmembers did not ask him about it. Watson stressed that he views the drawing as a planning document, not a development commitment. He pointed to the city's dwindling supply of publicly controlled industrial property. Ordinance 2026 54, which received a second reading later Monday, would grant an option on Lot 4 of the Eagle Rock North subdivision. Watson described it as the last city owned land remaining at Eagle Rock Industrial Park. He also pointed to an earlier concept plan around Progress Parkway and Fair Lane. That work ultimately preceded a 2016 annexation and developments including Trilogy and the Willows nursing home. "Planning is meant to show opportunity," Watson said. "I developed a concept plan that does not set anything in stone." That same night, council would vote to hire a consultant for a new citywide strategic development plan — another process Watson said will inevitably include conceptual drawings showing possible opportunities. The records request Watson also laid out how much city time had gone into responding to the Advertiser Tribune's request. He said Law Director Zachary Fowler forwarded the request to him at the end of the day Thursday, Aug. 6. Watson was scheduled to be off the next day, but said he spent four hours that Friday loading more than 150 records into a city shared drive. Nine follow up questions arrived Monday, Aug. 10, followed by three more. Watson said he responded to all 12 and spent more than five hours total working on the matter. He also disputed an impression he believed readers could take from Saturday's article about whether records from his office had been supplied, specifically materials stored in the engineering department's Clouse industrial park folder. Watson said pages in the packet he distributed Monday showed that he uploaded those records himself, including the working AutoCAD file for the concept plan. "Beyond that point, I'm not involved in the public records request," he said. Fowler told council that his office still has the material gathered in response to the request and can produce it. Watson's documents, Fowler added, represented only part of the records collected. Councilmember Kyle Daugherty asked that Watson's packet be kept with the clerk of council so members of the public can review it without having to submit another records request. 'This is our home' Anna Flechtner speaks at a Tiffin City Council meeting, Monday, July 20, 2026. (Screenshot via City of Tiffin / Facebook Live) The residents whose properties sit next to or inside the proposed annexation described a much different experience. Anna Flechtner lives at 2702 W. State Route 18. Her family's property is one of the two locations tied to the sewer agreements Watson distributed. "We've never been approached as partners in this project," Flechtner told council. "We were never asked whether we wanted to participate in an annexation or whether we supported the development being contemplated behind our home." When the family was approached about the annexation, she said, it was not presented as an optional invitation. "We were told that our sewer agreement required us to join that petition," Flechtner said, adding that the family was told there could be consequences if it did not. "We are homeowners whose property became necessary for somebody else's plans," she said. Flechtner told council that the dispute has followed her family home from every public meeting. She said she has lost sleep over it and that her children, ages 4 and 7, have noticed. "Have you ever had to explain annexation to a four year old and seven year old?" she asked. "Have you ever had to reassure your children about their home and that it will always be there when you don't know what is going to happen yourself?" "There's a family living inside those property lines," Flechtner said, "and the decisions that you make have very real human impact on the four of us." Lindsay Parkins speaks at a Tiffin City Council meeting, Monday, Aug. 17, 2026. (Screenshot via YouTube) Lindsay Parkins, who owns neighboring property, told council she had not planned to speak but decided to after listening to the discussion. Parkins said the concept places heavy industrial land directly alongside her property. "It is proposed heavy industrial right up to my driveway," she said. "There's no buffer of any type. And I don't understand how this is okay." She said neighboring property owners were never asked what types of businesses or development they might support. "I wanted quiet. I wanted peace," Parkins said of the home she spent years renovating. "I wanted that for my kids." Flechtner was among residents who confronted city officials about the annexation in July, when Wilkinson said Clouse approached Tiffin after Hopewell Township refused to rezone the farmland out of agricultural use. Council backs Watson — and hears a call for earlier input Councilmembers responded to Watson with repeated expressions of support. At large Councilman John Hays, who presided Monday in the absence of Council President Bridget Boyle, told Watson the city was fortunate to have him and apologized for what he had been put through. Daugherty said Watson and the engineering department save the city significant amounts of money. Councilmember Dennis Snay pointed to the staff time consumed by the records dispute, while Councilmember Kevin Roessner thanked Watson for being transparent. Former City Administrator Dale Thornton also spoke in Watson's defense and argued that Tiffin must continue finding places to grow. Thornton compared the current fight to past neighborhood opposition surrounding the relocation of Mercy Hospital. Wilkinson then read from a statement he had provided to the Advertiser Tribune regarding his February visit to the Flechtners. The mayor said his purpose was to give the family advance notice that a petition involving its sewer agreement would soon be filed and to allow the Flechtners to review the agreement before receiving formal correspondence. Tiffin Mayor Lee Wilkinson. (Official Portrait) "My intent was not to pressure or surprise them," Wilkinson said, "but rather to ensure that they had the information in advance and the opportunity to ask questions and consider the matter before any official action was taken." After public comment ended, Councilmember Ashlee Decker said the dispute should inform the city's upcoming community planning process. Community input should happen earlier and across all six of the city's priority areas, she said, before a finished plan is presented. "As much as we might have tried in the past," Decker said, "maybe it needs additional effort." 'Why put yourself through this?' Watson emphasized that the ultimate annexation decision does not belong to him and said he held nothing against residents who feel threatened by the proposal. "I have done nothing more than go above and beyond doing my job for the 17,000 residents of the city of Tiffin," he said. "It's up to council to make the decisions from here." Near the end of his remarks, Watson described the dispute in more personal terms. "When articles like the one on Saturday are published, deep down, it really makes you begin to question the why," he said. "Why do you sacrifice and devote the time and effort that you do to try to go above and beyond for this community when there's other opportunities out there? Why put yourself through this?" For all the attention the proposal received Monday, City Council still has no annexation legislation in front of it. The petition goes first through the Seneca County commissioners. Council's role comes later, after the annexation record reaches the clerk and remains on the table for 60 days. Elsewhere at Monday's meeting Council approves Hedges Boyer mural after emergency law briefing (Photo: Destination Seneca County) Council also approved "Tiffin's Roots and Rising," a roughly $7,000 mural planned for the back of the concession stand at Hedges Boyer Park. Destination Seneca County Tourism and Marketing Director Marisa Stephens presented a design by local artist Claudia Riedy featuring an outline of Ohio, a sun recalling the former South Washington Street bridge mural, native plants, the state bird, a tree, a squirrel and the America 250 logo. The money comes from the $10,000 already budgeted annually to the Tiffin Municipal Arts Commission. Stephens said supplies are expected to cost roughly $1,076 to $1,200, with the remaining project money going to Riedy for her work. Council suspended its three reading rule, declared Ordinance 2026 57 an emergency and passed it 6 0 on first reading. The votes came after Fowler briefed members on the Ohio Supreme Court's Aug. 7 ruling involving the village of Ashville, where the court rejected boilerplate emergency language used in a data center measure. Fowler said emergency legislation needs enough specific facts for a reader to understand why immediate action is necessary and told council to expect more questions from him when emergency clauses are requested. He also clarified that suspending the three reading rule and declaring an emergency are separate actions. Suspension of the reading rule, Fowler said, carries no legal standard of its own. Income tax slips as council adds $50,000 for utilities Finance Director Jill Lindhorst reported that Tiffin collected $871,211.93 in income tax in July — $81,553.79 less than in July 2025. Year to date income tax receipts were down 2.52%. Council later suspended the three reading rule and passed Ordinance 2026 58, a $58,100 budget amendment, 6 0. The measure was not declared an emergency. The largest piece is $50,000 for telephone, water, natural gas and electricity across city departments through the end of the year. Lindhorst said a midyear review found utility costs running ahead of what had been budgeted. Another $7,700 goes to parks and recreation for costs including vandalism to units during Fourth of July events, a rate increase, heavier ballfield use and increased summer camp attendance. The remaining $400 offsets a Government Finance Officers Association travel reimbursement. Total city receipts for July were $5.14 million against about $5.09 million in expenses. The general fund's unencumbered balance stood at about $5.52 million. Watson cited the same financial picture during his annexation remarks, arguing that industrial development and the revenue it produces have to be considered as the city plans for its future. Strategic plan passes; other measures advance Council also approved an agreement with the Gossman Group to prepare a citywide strategic development plan. Ordinance 2026 56 passed 6 0 on first reading after council suspended the three reading rule and declared an emergency. Roessner said he had questioned the need to suspend the rule during an earlier Committee of the Whole discussion but ultimately supported the measure. Resolution 2026 47, establishing policies for the city's use of federal funds, also passed 6 0 after being declared an emergency. Four measures received second readings without final action: an RFP for development of about 0.8 acres of city owned land adjacent to City Lot 6; changes to city law governing sanitary and stormwater easements; creation of an All Patriots Memorial Commission; and the option agreement for the remaining city owned parcel at Eagle Rock North. Three additional requests were referred to committee, including two involving city property and one involving a Home Grant Program that could cover installation of backflow preventers. Recreation and Public Property and Finance committee meetings are scheduled for Monday, Aug. 24. Councilmember Scott Hoernemann was absent Monday. Hays presided for Boyle, and every roll call vote taken during the meeting was 6 0.