[Draft as mailed by the Village of Boston Heights OH, as presented by Councilor Mike Cheung at the 2002 meetings of the Planning Commission and Board of Zoning Appeals for the Village. Text shown bracketed in these italics is commentary for this (unofficial) online version, by Boston Heights Overlook.]
Dear Fellow Boston Height Residents:
The Village Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, and Council Zoning Committee are proposing an overhaul of the zoning for the Village. The impact will be mainly on new business buildings with very limited impact on our residential areas. Two main principles guided this process: (1) provide protection in the form of buffering between our residential areas and business uses which may be undesirable immediately next to areas with homes and (2) recognition of changes that have occurred in the over forty years since much of the Village's present zoning was set up. There are only 3 changes to our residential areas: (1) the area presently zoned for business along Olde 8 near 303 will be rezoned residential, (2) the parcel presently zoned residential located at the intersection of Walters and Hines Hill Road will be rezoned to office & professional and (3) the area presently zoned residential between the Ohio Turnpike and Boston Mills Road East of Route 8 will be rezoned to office & professional.
You are invited to share your thoughts and comments on this plan with the Village Planning Commission, Board of Zoning Appeals, and Council Zoning Committee at a public hearing on the rezoning proposal to be held June 5, 2002 at 7:00 pm at the Village Hall.
Appended to this document please find the current zoning map for the Village and a map depicting the proposed zoning.
Types of zoning in the proposed plan:
Residential (RES) : essentially our present R- 1 with the odd language about golf courses and driving ranges removed
Permitted Uses: Single family dwellings, agriculture, public use
Conditional Uses: Churches, public schools, government buildings
Prohibited Uses: Adult entertainment establishments
Recreational (REC) : to cover the golf course as it presently exists, co-coverage with new Residential (i.e. RES permitted in REC zoned areas)
Creating the two zoning designations to replace our current R-1 (residential) zoning is housekeeping. Long ago, the residential (R-1) zoning was modified to permit the golf course to be built. If interpreted literally, one could build a golf course or driving range on any residential property in the Village. We propose to fix that without limiting any of the presently permitted options for development of the golf course.
Permitted Uses: All uses permitted in Residential (RES)
Conditional Uses: Golf courses, driving ranges
Prohibited Uses: Adult entertainment establishments
Office / Professional (OP) : similar to our O-1; permit offices (for example company headquarters and research centers), professional (doctors, dentists, lawyers, ...); sales of services rather than goods for the most part.
Permitted Uses: Office for the following functions - administrative, executive, legal, financial, accounting, clerical, design, engineering, drafting, medical, dental, orthodontia, sales (display and/or showroom area restricted to 20% of building)
Conditional Uses: Restaurants, barbers, hair dressers, & other services supporting an office complex, also bed & breakfast establishments (distinguished from hotels and motels primarily by a limitation on the number of rooms)
Prohibited Uses: Adult Entertainment Establishments
General Business (GB) : similar to our present B-1; small retail operations, restaurants, trades (plumbing, roofing), personal services (barbers, beauty shops, ...), services to business (for example: medical products, computer equipment, information services); sales of goods and services; co-coverage with Office / Professional (OP okay in GB areas); Restrict buildings to 30,000 sq feet or less.
Permitted Uses: All uses permitted in Office/Professional (OP), banks, barber shops, beauty shops, gift shops, medical supplies, computer sales & service, building trades (roofing, plumbing,...)
Conditional Uses: Dry cleaning, laundry, laundromats, restaurants, bakeries, meat markets, ice cream parlor, delicatessen, other food preparation & sales uses, hospitals, nursing homes, other compatible uses
Prohibited Uses: Adult Entertainment Establishments
Retail Business (RB) : larger business operations for retail or hotels; restrict buildings for retail to 50,000 sq feet or less.
We are proposing to create two zoning categories where we presently have one (B-1, retail business). The reason is that large tracts of the presently undeveloped land in the Village are zoned B-1 and we feel that a slightly finer definition of the types of businesses we want in different parts of the Village is needed. The RB larger retail business areas would be buffered from residential areas either by lower impact uses such as general business (GB), office/professional (OP) or specific buffering requirements restricting how close to a residential area anything could be built including parking spaces. Also, we are planning to limit the maximum size of the buildings permitted to prevent the construction of "big box"' retail structures that can be very hard to redevelop once the original use is over and which attract large amounts of traffic straining both our roads and our safety forces.
Permitted Uses: All uses permitted in Office/Professional (OP) and General Business (GB), bowling alley, furniture sales, appliance sales, hardware, building supplies
Conditional Uses: Service stations, car washes, automobile sales, taverns, motels, hotels, other compatible uses
Prohibited Uses: [none given]
Light Manufacturing (LM) : manufacturing operations excluding chemical processing (this does not prohibit mixing, blending, or simple bonding as an assembly or production step, ...), heavy machining, casting, warehousing ... ; mainly assembly of prefabricated components, some light machining; storage as required for operations, but not storage as a business; co-coverage with General Business and Office / Professional (GB and OP okay in LM areas); building restriction of 50,000 sq feet.
We do not desire to have heavy industry in the Village, but in appropriate locations far from our residentially zoned areas, we feel that some light manufacturing could exist, contribute to our business and tax base, and yet not disturb our residents.
Permitted Uses: All uses permitted in Office/Professional (OP), General Business (GB), and Retail Business (RB)
Conditional Uses: component assembling, production involving mixing, blending, & bottling, other compatible uses
Prohibited Uses: production involving chemical processing (reaction, distillation,...), casting, heavy machining
[Cuyahoga Valley National Park (CVNP)]
[Roadways & trailways]
General provisions :
Create requirement for undeveloped (no paving or building) buffer zone between any non-RES usage and an RES area. If a road separates the two areas the buffer shall be measured from the center line of the road right of way. The idea here is to require an undeveloped strip of land between our residential property and other uses. This is intended to help preserve the present sense of open space and country atmosphere we now enjoy.
Create "sunset provision" for approvals by either Planning or Zoning and for permits. This is a housekeeping issue. At present there is no time limit for development once Planning or Zoning acts. Our feeling is that if a great deal of time passes, the situation may have changed enough that the proposed use should be reconsidered.
Create requirement that all non-residential buildings be of masonry or brick exterior. This is intended to improve the business building stock in the Village and provide for longer lasting multipurpose structures. An exception will be buildings housing light manufacturing operations, these may be of non-masonry construction, but the office or sales portions of the operation would have to be housed in masonry or brick exterior buildings.
Specific Changes:
1. Rezone most present R-1 to the new RES. The exception is the golf course which will be rezoned REC.
As mentioned earlier this is mostly a housekeeping issue.
2. Rezone present O-1 to OP.
This is also mainly housekeeping, though we will update the types of office & professional uses we intend be permitted in these areas.
3. Rezone the Papes "sheep farm" on Hines Hill Road from R-1 to OP. This will serve as a buffer for the residential areas to the north along Walters Road.
We feel that the property is a natural transition between Hines Hill Road which now has almost exclusively business on it east of Route 8 and our nearby residential area in Ashbrooke. This is however a reduction in the residentially zoned property in the Village.
4. Rezone the north side of Hines Hill to GB; from the Papes "sheep farm" to the corner (including McSwine's); the tank farm is grandfathered, of course.
5. Rezone remaining B-1 area north of Hines Hill and East of Route 8 to RB.
6. Rezone area on the south side of Hines Hill Road to GB except for the two large lots at the Route 8 end, these will be RB.
We feel that lower impact business use of this area is consistent with keeping a buffer between higher impact business which may build near Route 8 and the Ashbrooke residential area.
7. Rezone present B-1 on the west of Route 8 and south of Hines Hill (Holiday Inn site) to RB.
This fits the current use of the areas presently developed near the Holiday Inn into our new categories.
8. Rezone B-1 areas west of Route 8 along Boston Mills Road to GB.
9. Rezone B-1 areas east of Route 8 along Boston Mills Road to GB.
This replaces the current broad B-1 zoning with the lowest impact category of business use for the areas near the Village Hall and around the Route 8, Boston Mills Road intersection.
10. Rezone R-1 area east of Route 8 and north of Boston Mills Road to OP. [Alnola Farms South]
This is a loss of residential area, but looks to be more realistic zoning for this area. Development under OP zoning should be much lower impact both visually and from a traffic standpoint than other business uses.
11. Rezone B-1 areas at the north end of Chittenden to GB.
12. Rezone the B-1 area along Chittenden (well) south of the properties adjoining the residential properties along Boston Mills Road to LM.
These two changes create a buffer of low impact business use next to the backs of the residential properties along Boston Mills Road and changes the present B-1 zoning along the remainder of Chittenden Road to a use more in keeping with the type of development taking place there. The southern portion of Chittenden Road abuts property in Hudson that is likely to be developed in a similar fashion eventually.
13. Rezone the remaining I-1 areas in the south of the Village to LM.
This makes our existing I-1 areas conform to the new zoning categories.
14. Rezone the B-1 area at the south end of Olde 8 to RES with the exception of the old Holland [Bolin] oil station which will be GB.
This change eliminates the potential for business development along Olde 8 near 303. This area has developed almost exclusively as residential already and this change protects those homeowners.
15. Rezone the B-1 areas south of 303 to GB.
This makes the existing B-1 areas south of 303 conform to the new zoning categories.