Medina Planning Board leader ends 20-year tenure
Chris Busch influential in setting Medina’s standards in historic district, Maple Ridge Corridor
File photo by Tom Rivers – Chris Busch, shown here in 2014 with the Bent’s Opera House in back, served many years as chairman of the Village of Medina’s Planning Board and Medina’s Tree Board. In his role with the Orleans Renaissance Group, the organization pushed to save the bent’s Opera House, a project now led by Roger Hungerford.
MEDINA – The leader of Medina’s Planning Board has resigned after two decades of major investment in the downtown business district and also along the Maple Ridge Corridor.
Chris Busch has been serving as chairman of the Village Planning Board and also the Historic & Architectural Preservation Review Board.
Busch, in an Aug. 5 letter to Mayor Mike Sidari and the Village Board, said “it is time to move on” after more than 20 years on the Planning Board.
Busch led the boards that implemented design standards in the downtown historic district and also on the Maple Ridge Corridor. Those standards for signs, facades and building construction established a blueprint for guiding the growth on Main Street and on Maple Ridge.
“Over that time, with a great deal of cooperation, hard work and vision, much has been accomplished,” Busch wrote in his letter.
Medina has seen major investment in the historic downtown sites, and also significant growth on Maple Ridge with several new commercial buildings.
“The Planning Board is in good hands,” Busch said in the letter. “Seated on the current board are some of the finest, most qualified and dedicate people I have ever known.”
Busch, who also led Medina’s Tree Board for more than a decade and helped plan for planting 1,000 trees, said he would be willing to serve on an ad hoc committee, waterfront committee or in an advisory committee. He remains active with the Orleans Renaissance Group, which oversee the farmers’ market and the Farm-to-Table dinner, as well as other cultural events in Medina.
Sidari and the Village Board accepted Busch’s resignation during their meeting last week.
“I want to add our thanks for his many years of service and our deep regrets for his resignation,” Sidari said.
