Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

i'd like to call this evening's meeting of the planning commission to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all roll call please

Here.

Here.

Here. All right. Can I have a motion to approve the May 26, 2026 minutes? I think we should do them individually.

I'll take turn. I'll make a motion to approve the minutes from May 26, 2026.

Second. Second.

It's been moved and seconded that we approve the meeting, the minutes from the meeting of May 26, 2026. Roll call, please.

Mr. Wagner.

Yes.

Ms. Cheptoe. Yes. Mr. Dekuliak.

Yes. Motion carries. Can I have a motion on the June 23rd, 2026 minutes?

I'll make another motion to approve the minutes from June 23rd, 2026.

I second.

It's been moved and seconded that we approve the minutes from the June 23rd, 2026 meeting. Roll call, please.

Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mrs. Treptow? Yes. Mr. Dekulia? Yes.

All right. Any old business? I have one question on old business. Has there been any update on this dough bowling alley that they were going to start in February?

I have not heard anything in a little while. I can email the engineer on that. Are they getting close where they have to resubmit it? No, they've submitted building permits in the last few months, I believe.

Yeah, they had some time still for their demo.

Okay.

Good question.

Yeah, there's never anything being done except weeds growing. And they're doing well. All right.

New business. All right, thank you. First application, this is for a sign variance just right across the street at 3732 Darrow. The property is on C2 and they're just requesting a variance from a new sign for Pretty Nails of Stowe. They're replacing an existing sign. This sign would be 44 square feet in total area. Our code allows, it's based on the percentage of the wall that the sign is affixed to. In this case, they're permitted up to 24.5 square feet for this tenant. So it's a variance of 19.5 square feet. That's partially because the way the sign is being installed and you have the Y and the F sticking down a little bit, increasing that height of it. If we took the measurement without it, it would be approximately 30 square feet in area. But our code requires that we calculate the area based on a geometric shape covering the entire area of the sign. So again, this is a 44 square foot sign where 24 and a half square feet is permitted.

There really is no sign for them currently. It's another name, correct?

it's another name yes yep and then we have the variance criteria up here if you need to refer to them but that's all i have for you and i believe the applicant is here if you have any questions i have a question i guess somebody has to stand up and you could turn that on and then state your name and address

My name is Brian Davis. I'm the owner of Signs 330 at 118 South Main Street, Monroe Falls, Ohio.

And you swear what you're about to say will be the truth. I swear.

Great. Go ahead. So my question is, is this the same font and same geometrical size of the adjacent signs? You've got a pizza shop beside, right? I have a feeling the sign is just a bigger font. than everything else is, and that's causing some of this.

Yeah, the way that the sign that we have presented on this is actually the same size, even if you calculate the cursive Y and the cursive F coming down, it's the same size as the current sign that's there. It's called Regency Nail. So this, when we designed it like this, we did it just based on being the exact square footage of what's there now. And then we've been talking about it. And what really throws it way out of compliance is the Y and the F. The challenge we have If we would shrink it down to the allowable, let's say we just cut off the Y for fun and the F for fun, to shrink it down to get to the allowable square footage, you really wouldn't be, it'll just look like a blob up there based on their thing. So this is a way to make it still look nice. It's still overall the same square footage of what's up there now. And if you take out the F and the Y hanging down, it's considerably smaller than what's there.

could you not make it I don't know what size font this is let's say this is a 40 font what if you made like a 36 font is that because it looks like to me the sign itself is bigger in nature than either one of the adjacent signs to the left to the right just looks like it's a the font is just bigger and I can't if I'm looking like where this would fit like the font from the jewelers and the font from Papa John's right it's The letters on this thing looks significant bigger than anything on either side. And I get the jeweler's is a double stack. You can't do that because of the Y and the F, okay? But you could certainly make the font a little smaller in size, at least to where it fits within the space. If I'm looking at the space of where the tenant is at, it's even outside of the wall-to-wall side of their overall space that they're looking at the building. I think that's what I see.

Does it go on either side of Papa John's or the grave, the jewelers? No. It's not just... It appears to.

It appears to because to try and get, we probably have to get up on a lift. I even approached my graphic designer about that. I'm like, this appears as if, he said, the only way to get this geometrically to look correct in a photo is to get up on a lift and take it straight at a bird's eye view so it doesn't look like the walls of Papa John's and the walls of Brady's Jewelers.

In that picture, you're basically interjecting an image like on... Yeah. Yeah, I'm with you. Okay.

It's definitely, it's also smaller than the smoke connection up there we're presenting. The challenge, to answer your question, not to get too technical and boring but if we shrink that font down any smaller it's called stroke size of the cursive and you can't necessarily fit leds inside of that because with cursive the stroke in some areas gets so narrow you're not going to be able to hit the led lights there's going to be dead spots throughout and it's not going to glow properly we've went through we've really tried a lot of options for this and really we're just landing on there So it's going to be smaller. They're not going to be able to have their name.

So Regency nails is there now. That's what's there now. Yes.

Yeah.

So with this sign, I believe we saw a variance for it. It does exceed the code and even the old code, which They could have maintained the sign. They could have done a like for like replacement, but then completely doing a new one has to meet code today. So that's why we're here for the variance. And I don't know if it's worth a question for the applicant, how would it look if of stow was removed? That would bring it down, if that's an option for the owner.

I'm looking at this and thinking City Council overwrote us on the sheets to give sheets an advantage that no one else in the city has. That was a lot more egregious than this. I mean, they're replacing a sign that's already there. I have no problem with that personally.

It's good to see the street view.

The street view, that made a difference.

Yeah, to understand what we're replacing.

It actually, if you would draw a box around Regency nails, pretty nails would fit right inside of that.

Okay.

Any other questions? Any questions from the audience? Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Is there a motion?

I'll make a, oh, go ahead. I'm on a roll tonight. I'm just going to keep going. I'll make a motion that we approve PC 2026-015 as signed variance as presented.

Second. It's been moved and seconded that we approve PC 2615 as presented. Any other discussion? Roll call, please.

Mr. Dekuliak, did you second that? Or Mr. Wagner? I did. Okay. Mr. Wagner?

Yes.

Mrs. Treptow? Yes. Mr. Dekuliak?

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you very much.

All right. Thank you.

All right. We're on to PC 2026-018.

Thank you. Um, yeah, so this is, this is just a study item review. So there is no vote on this. Just a discussion item with plan commission. Um, this is Lance Osborne. We wanted to discuss the possibility of rezoning. A portion of this property, uh, so for reference, this is West of Meyer also West of where. This will help this is West of where sheets and sorry. The Meyer store, I'm sorry. Yes, but yeah, yeah Yeah, sorry And what about the new drive-thru restaurant which we're on Panda Express Yeah, Panda Express is on the west side of the Meyer gas. Okay, so we're looking at the one just in my view to the right of that So Panda Express gas station, yeah, and then this then we're talking that one. Okay, so Yeah, so right next to it, Sheets and Chick-fil-A are being constructed right now. Under this concept plan, this is for a coffee drive-thru establishment. It would only take up a small portion of the property up in the front. This is the property where the nursing home was recently built just a couple years ago. So this would take up the front portion of that property. It would still leave the required frontage for the nursing home, which is, I think it's 35 feet. but they would need to rezone this property to C3, which would match the surrounding properties, C3 commercial. And at that point, he would come through for site plan review, but he would first need to rezone it to C3 to permit a restaurant. And then under that, a drive-through is a conditional use. So he would need to come through planning commission and council for conditional use approval for the drive-through. before he goes through that whole process, he's gonna come and get your thoughts, see if there's any feedback on this project.

So basically, oh, you need to turn that on and state your name and address.

Hi, my name is Lance Osborne and my address is 7670 Tyler Boulevard in Mentor, Ohio, 44060.

And you saw what you're about to say is true. I do. Thank you. Thank you. yeah I just another coffee shop. Trying to go for car washes. So let me just i'm not. Just.

Yeah, I'll tell you, when I started here, I didn't think there was enough coffee here. So we've gotten a few more cents.

We have a few.

We have a few. And Roddy Bean.

No, go ahead.

I'm not saying we'll be successful.

So we acquired the... the nursing home component of the Stowe Glen property. And right now under construction are Sheetz, Chick-fil-A and Fitworks in the northeast corner. There's a fourth building that's permitted where the cursor is. We do not have a tenant for that yet, but those three tenants will be open this year.

So Fitworks is moving from where they are to there? Yes. Wow.

the so we were approached by dutch bros they wanted to be in our development we can't accommodate them some background on dutch bros is they are publicly traded basically national expanding coffee and drink purveyor not just coffee per se but they do dessert drinks and pretty much anything wet okay um What I wanted to come before the board for is just sort of take everyone's temperature, make sure the plan looks or the board looks favorably upon the plan, I guess. And before we go down the road of getting the consents necessary to do the lot split. So for us to rezone it from R3 to C3, we need a lot split the property. Dave Kuntz, To lots with the property, the nursing home operator off to get their lender to consent on it, they may have to get their certificate of need updated with the state of Ohio. Dave Kuntz, So before going through all those troubles, I wanted to make sure I think it's a good plan. but i want to make sure that the board was comfortable with the rezoning as well as the proposed site plan so the building is just under a thousand square feet there's no indoor seating it's all all the businesses through the drive-through um we added a bypass lane around the drive-through

That traffic light, so you would have to use the road.

It is not accessible off of Kent Road. So there's a signalized intersection that goes back to the apartments, the nursing home, and sheets to the east. So you would come off of that private driveway and then turn into the property.

Where would that be? Where would that turn be? So the entrance is between Sheets and Chick-fil-A.

So what we did is we lined up the northernmost entrance, which is the two-way. So the way you would enter the property is lined up from our driveway that comes out. So those two are aligned.

So on the site plan here, you see this drive right along the edge of the plan here? Mm-hmm. So that drive is this location.

So you'll put a road in between to go into there. They'll come out and go back out that way.

You'll come into the Dutch Bros property right across from the Sheets full access. So that's why it's to the north. They're lined up.

you would turn i'm not i'm not kidding okay to me so in other words you're not going at the back of the sheets in front of the other lot with the drive over to the other the new place we're coming off of the existing driveway that and this will be helpful when we get to google earth image

that currently accesses the sheets in the nursing home. And I'm pretty sure I'll say a thousand words.

Okay, so this is where Chick-fil-A is being, or Sheetz is being built. This is Chick-fil-A over here. This is the access drive that would be taken to get to the coffee shop, which would be located over here. This drive is existing. And this serves the nursing home and the apartments in the back.

And that also serves Sheetz and Chick-fil-A and the

Yes, but those are accessed on the east side of that drive. Yep. The coffee shop will be on the west.

Okay. So as you come into the driveway, sheets will be on your right, Dutch Bros will be on your left, and you'd be looking at the nursing home in the back.

Okay. Okay. So then I thought there was a drive between Sheetz and Chick-fil-A. Yeah, there's one in between them as well, but that's limited access right in, right out.

Okay.

And that's where the fitness people will be entering too. Correct. And whatever may be in that fourth spot. Right. Okay.

All right.

i think to answer your question um i think rezoning it's appropriate i think i'd rather see it be built up than sit i don't think residential whatever and it's not a residential spot it's never gonna be right so that's almost a no-brainer in my opinion um coffee shop i don't know

You're looking right across from Starbucks and half a click down to Seven Brew. I mean, that's for them. That's the decision. It's just a bit, yeah.

I could see it as a popular spot, but it would be competitive. That's all.

Would there be plans to put a second something in the space that's behind it?

No, that's the detention basin for... Okay. Some of the nursing homes.

So that's the only, okay.

So that's as big as you can get.

It can be a little bit bigger, but it's generally what would fit there.

Is there, so on your drive-thru, the bypass lane requirement, it looks like this funnels down into a single lane. It does. Is there a second lane then as well outside of that? I think it was all the way around. I think I see that. I just want to be sure that.

the hashed area yes that'd be the bypass lane yeah that's a bypass line there yeah okay are there any of this brand in northeastern ohio you're gonna see probably 20 in the next year but none currently um not currently open but yeah they're they probably have i'll bet you 15 sites under contract release right now

where's the closest that we the closest open they're in dayton and i think they're opening shortly in columbus okay so they're kind of making their way north okay but they have a presence on the internet right you can see the storage yes i think they're i mean their market cap's like 17 billion dollars so it's like a it's a serious company yeah just to me i think we're gonna saturated area there'll be an

and one vacant coffee shop.

We'll see who it is, yeah.

But Stowe's problem, because you have an empty building someplace in that area. Okay. How many times have we gone over here? Is that the third or the fourth? iteration and still like I still just don't that location is a struggle to get retail out of there yeah for a coffee shop and I'm a coffee drinker yeah I just kind of cumbersome and get it out of there and it's not hard it's just couldn't make it as a grocery store yeah a couple times people are yeah okay all right I think it works I'm just curious that's all

So I would say generally, thank you for the feedback on the rezoning. Are there any site plan comments that you see or anything we should address before our next application?

I think you can't control it. I just think it's going to be, depends on the staging of openings and everything. That'll be a very, could be a very lengthy traffic light. Backed up from people leaving Chick-fil-A, the cheese shop, it could be a

So we included this in our traffic study, and we're expanding that driveway by basically a lane. So the driveway is getting expanded in the next few weeks, actually.

The exit on that driveway will have to have two lanes, one left, one right.

That's right. Correct.

One end is ingress.

One ingress, two egress.

Yeah. yeah I mean I think it's good use of space and it's condensed and yeah there's only so many things you can put in there right yeah absolutely so that's not a car wash I mean it's not ever going to be residential I mean it just isn't so the rezoning I think thing is I think we're all comfortable with that yeah right the business idea is you didn't get to find a fit and function for a small space yeah

Okay. So I guess we can proceed by creating the tax parcel and then coming back in front of the board to rezone that tax parcel from R3 to C3 and at the same time review an updated site plan. They've made some minor tweaks to what you've seen today, but it's 99% of what you see today.

Okay.

Great. Thank you. Well, thank you. I appreciate your feedback. Thank you very much. Thank you. Any other pieces of business for today? No, sir. Is there a motion for adjournment?

Oh, I'm just going to close it out. Make a motion to adjourn.

I second.

It's been moved and seconded. We adjourn. All in favor signify by saying aye. Aye.