|
|
|
Boston Heights Overlook
|
|
This is a publication of
Boston Heights Overlook.
Not an official public document by, of or for
the Village of Boston Heights OH.
|
Click on items or parcels for more info.
|
On the agenda of the 03 September 2003 7PM meeting of the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals for the Village of Boston Heights, Ohio
- Family First Moving
Reviewing their business location at 190 E. Boston Mills Rd.
Approved by Planning Commission; see below.
- Omni Realty Company
Presenting the next round on their proposal for "Crossings at Boston Heights", a major
mixed use development along Boston Mills Rd. and along Hines Hill Rd.
Reviewed by Planning Commission; see below.
- General Zoning
At the request of the Zoning Inspector: review of fence and storage requirements.
Reviewed by Planning Commission & BZA; see below.
|
General Notes
Another crowd turned out to hear the next chapter of the Omni proposal
for rezoning and development along Hines Hill and (principally) along Boston Mills Road.
Solicitor Russ Pry sat in on the Planning Commission meeting, instead of Mr. Ed Muse.
The Planning Commission (PC), all present except for Mr. Scott Carter (and Dr. H. Michael Cheung,
who appeared later), approved the minutes of their previous meeting.
The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA), all present but Mr. Ken Metz, corrected and approved the
minutes of their previous meeting.
Family First Moving Inc.
Representatives of Family First Moving, Inc.
(charter #1249367)
presented their revised proposal for operation of their business at 190 E. Boston Mills Rd.
This is the southwest corner of State Rt.8 and
E. Boston Mills, now next to Prudential Auto (formerly Carena Motors).
The property is owned by
Mr. Kenneth C. Desatnik of 562 W. Boston Mills Rd.,
and is within a GB General Business district; refer to parcels
#1300464, et al.,
totaling about 0.97 acres.
This is a continued matter; please see last month's meeting notes
for more information. This month the Planning Commission received a site plan showing that
the company's two moving trucks (18000# GVW) will be parked on pavement, as required.
About 3-5 employee vehicles will also be parked on pavement. The Mayor agreed to contact
Ohio Edison to expedite the necessary change in the pole-mounted lighting, which is too high to
suit the Planning Commission. The PC also reviewed the company's proposed 8x3.5ft sign, which
will be attached to the building over their offices.
Resolution:
Operation & Sign Approved by Planning Commission.
Back to the Agenda/Map
Omni Realty Company
This is continued from last month's presentation; please see
last month's meeting notes for more extensive information.
Mr. Greg Baka of Omni Realty Company reviewed
the outline of the proposal: "Crossings at Boston Heights", a major
mixed use development along Boston Mills Rd. and along Hines Hill Rd.
Mr. Baka showed preliminary plans (adapted here) wherein Omni would require
significant zoning changes, to allow the following at E. Boston Mills Road:
- A hotel or "lodge resort" to the east, toward Hudson
(possibly replaced by an office park development)
- A retail district also to the west (near Route 8)
- An area of mixed office and retail in between
- High-density housing to the east (near Hudson)
This property is the Alnola Farms South parcel (approx. 77 acres) that was recently
denuded of trees. It
is directly across from the Residential district on E. Boston Mills Rd. The parcel was
just recently rezoned from Residential (R-1) to OP Office Professional, except for
about 4 acres near the BP station, which remained GB General Business (was B-1).
The property on Boston Mills Rd., and the eastern part of the Hines Hill Rd. property, are
owned by Boston Heights Development Company
(charter #249446).
N.B.: OP zoning permits none of the above-listed uses (except the offices alone, which do not meet the
minimum requirement of 4 acres).
Plans for the Hines Hill and Route 8 area also show at least one conflict with the
current zoning, which is a mix of RB Retail Business and GB General Business:
a service station within 5000 feet of an existing station (Marathon, BP and Starfire are all closer than that).
There is also a question of whether certain types of take-out restaurants would be permissible.
This Month
Mr. Baka stated that, in response to local residents' concerns,
the company would be willing to swap the locations of the proposed hotel/water park
and the larger office development. That is: the hotel/water park would end up along Hines Hill
and the office development would end up south of the Turnpike, north of Boston Mills and the proposed
high-density housing area.
At a recent committee meeting, the Village Council discussed extensive vandalism and security problems
at the closed hotel on Hines Hill (nee Yankee Clipper), now owned by Omni. There was talk of condemning the hotel
if it could not be secured. In response to a subsequent conversation with Mayor Ray McFall,
Mr. Baka stated that Omni had received final quotations on demolition of the hotel, that asbestos
abatement would be required first, and that none of this was likely to happen before Spring 2004
(half a year off!). He gave Omni's pledge to try to improve perimeter security at the hotel. He
also added that redevelopment of the hotel had not been entirely ruled out, and asked for the
community's patience in the matter.
Mr. Baka reiterated that a full Office Park development on the Boston Mills Road site would
be economically impractical, with a 20-30 year payoff, due to the asking price of the land
vis-a-vis other local land sales. From the audience Mr. Henderson (of Boston Mills Road)
expressed skepticism about this payoff period. He allowed that this might suggest that the
seller's asking price was, instead, unreasonably high and the argument
therefore specious. Mr. Baka said he'd think about that.
Village Solicitor Russ Pry recalled that Omni had promised to supply a proposed ordinance
for the kind of Planned Unit Development zoning they are requesting. Mr. Baka replied
that Omni had engaged a specialist lawfirm for this purpose, and hoped to have the proposed
zoning language to Mr. Pry within a week or so. Mr. Pry promised that copies would then be
supplied to the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals.
This led Mr. Baka to ask what the next steps would be, and about the expected village timetable.
Mr. Pry emphasized that this was not a fast-track procedure and would require many months:
Planning Commission meeting, public hearing, up to three readings by the Council, and only then
a similar process for rezoning the specific parcels, where needed. Councilor Mike Cheung
mentioned that the Planning Commission required 10 days notice for formal action at their
monthly meetings.
From the audience, Mrs. Jane Robinson asked whether the office park previously shown to the north,
and perhaps to be moved to the south, would still require a 20-30 year payoff period. Mr. Baka
replied that it would not, rather more like 5-10 years, because it was only about 1/3 of the
available acreage. Mrs. Robinson also wanted to know whether the lots already owned by Omni
would be developed regardless of the success of their overall proposal. (These are the
parcels containing the derelict hotel and the new Harley-Davidson dealership, along Hines Hill.)
Mr. Baka replied that they would still be developed, but not necessarily as shown in these proposals.
An unidentified gentleman in the audience asked whether the proposed Hines Hill road into the
Omni development would align with the access road proposed north of Hines Hill in conjunction
with the Route 8 upgrade project. Mr. Baka (and others) stated that the latter road's location
had not been pinned down yet, and all was preliminary. The gentleman pointed out that the state
was already buying property, and so the project was not quite all that preliminary.
Mr. Baka added that Omni had previously looked at use of the lands north of Hines Hill, and
found that there was too much wetland to be practical for their development purposes.
From the audience, Mr. Ed Fetko asked whether in fact a hotel would be permitted in the
northeastern part of the Hines Hill area, given that it was zoned GB General Business.
After a flurry of head-scratching by the Solicitor and Planning Commission, it was agreed
that this was so, and the area would in fact require rezoning to RB Retail Business.
From the audience, Councilor Bela Goncy asked for more information on the proposed high-density
housing. Mr. Baka reiterated that the proposal asked for close-set stand-alone single-family
homes on 25-30 acres. These would be targeted at the market of "empty-nesters".
(Ed. Note: as is claimed for many large home developments these days, to avoid
frightening the local school districts -- in this case, Hudson.) Mr. Baka's drawings seemed
to show 120 houses on 30 acres, for a net density of 4 units per acres.
Mr. Goncy asked whether it would be possible to further swap the proposed retail area and
office development, so as to put retail back along the turnpike and the less intrusive
office park along Boston Mills Road. Mr. Baka stated that it would not be possible
because retailers would insist on being close to Route 8 and along Boston Mills Road,
rather than being tucked back off the roadway. He also stated that he did not like to
refer to the retail area as a "strip shopping center" (apparently because the
strip has elbow in it...), and predicted that it would have "small stores" (up to
30,000 square feet!) and large restaurants. Omni wants to put several restaurants right
along Boston Mills Road (directly across from existing homes), with their parking to the north.
From the audience, a resident of Boston Mills Road asked how traffic could be handled when it was
already so bad at some times of day (due to the Hudson office parks and very poor traffic control
at Route 8). Mr. Baka stated that the development would indeed bring more traffic, but then
so would pure office park development, perhaps worse yet. (Ed. Note: He did not address the difficulties
that evening and weekend traffic would bring to local residents.)
From the audience, a citizen asked how high the buildings might be. Dr. Cheung pointed out that
most commercial zoning in the village had a 40 foot height restriction. Mr. Baka mentioned
that most of their Hudson office developments were single story, but that this development
might range up to 3 stories.
Another citizen asked about the impact of the Route 8 upgrade plan on this proposal. Mr. Baka
critized the current plan for the Hines Hill/Boston Mills intersection. He recounted a
conversation with former County Engineer Gene Esser, wherein Mr. Esser reportedly stated that
if commercial development occurred in the area, the interchange plan might change.
(Ed. Note: no clue as to how ODOT might feel about this, or what alternative plan
would be "better" for the Village, current businesses, and residents. Note
that Omni is not taking into account the current ODOT plan that would put a ramp loop right through
much of their retail parking, if not the stores themselves!)
Mr. George Rudy, a resident of Boston Mills Road, stated that he was opposed to this proposal.
This brought a murmur of agreement from several of his neighbors also in attendence.
Mr. William Hinkle, a resident of Boston Mills Road (and BZA member, and editor of these notes),
asked what Omni's fallback request would be if the Village refused to institute zoning for
high-density housing. He pointed out that previous requests for such zoning had been
strongly discouraged, and more specifically asked whether Omni would then ask for all-retail
rezoning along Boston Mills. Mr. Baka replied that he did not expect such a request to prevail
with the Village, and so Omni really didn't have a backup plan as such. He added that
Omni did have experience with building such PUD housing developments, through an associated
company. In reply to further questions from Mr. Hinkle, Mr. Baka stated that while Omni
did have a specialist partner arranged to handle the retail development, it was not going
to be handed over to any well-known shopping center developers (e.g. DDR, Mr. Wolstein, etc.).
He also stated that Omni did not have plans to request Tax Increment Financing for their
infrastructure funding, but rather would be paying for utilities and roadways. He did
admit that TIF would be welcome. He did not discuss infrastructure improvements
that would be required outside the Omni developments, e.g. to Boston Mills Road itself.
Resolution:
Reviewed by Planning Commission.
Back to the Agenda/Map
General Zoning: Fences and Storage
The Village Engineer, Mr. Steve Schreiber, asked for guidance on platting of nonconforming
lots for utility purposes -- in this case, a pumping station on the Donley Farm development.
He further asked for guidance on permitting islands within new culs-de-sac. There was some
discussion on this but nothing seems to have been decided.
The Village Zoning Inspector, Mr. David Himes, had requested guidance, or more
specific legislation, on several topics. These have caused some controversy
during his zoning enforcement:
The Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals discussed these points, and reviewed
the ordinances of several Ohio communities. It was decided to consider minimal changes
in the current fence requirements: specify minimum required opening width, specify cosmetic side
of fence toward neighbors, and include some requirements for swimming pool fencing. Mr. Pry
will prepare some sample language for next month. As for outside storage, it was decided
to review the ordinances of Delaware and Lexington for applicability in the Village, and
revisit the issue next month.
Resolution:
Reviewed by Planning Commission & BZA.
Back to the Agenda/Map
Some documents are Public Domain Information
from the Village of Boston Heights OH or other public entities.
Other materials Copyright 2001-2003 W.J.Hinkle
and BostonHeights.Org
Boston Heights Overlook and BostonHeights.Org are not affiliated with the Village of Boston Heights OH.
|
