Board of Zoning Appeals - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call to order the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting for the city of Twinsburg. If I could have a roll call, please.

Mr. Brown? Here. Mr. Griffith?

Here.

Mr. Allen?

Here.

Mr. Patz? Mr. Kansler?

Here. If we could stand for the pledge of allegiance. We just have two items, no unfinished business, two items on our new business for the agenda today. Go over just real quick the procedures of the meeting. Each case will be heard individually. Staff will present the request followed by the applicant's presentation. Anyone wishing to speak in favor or in opposition to this request will have the opportunity to do so. After public comment is closed, the board may ask questions, discuss this request, and then make a decision. Please direct all comments to the board. State your name, address for the record, and keep comments respectful and focused on the application before use. We don't see anybody in the audience for public comments, so we'll skip and not worry too much about that. So I'm going to go ahead and call up the first applicant, which has got a few variance requests. It's DeVar-26-0004 on 9927 Joanne Place. if that applicant is here, if they could step forward for us. If you want to go ahead and kind of give us a rundown of what you're asking for, just a little bit of a presentation of what you have.

Okay.

Thank you. And it states your name and address as well.

My name is Mark Fretzko. I live at 9927 Joanne Place. I want to build a garage next to my existing garage. And it needs to be big enough because I want to get a trailer And I want to put it inside the garage. I really don't want it outside. So it has to be about 32 feet, because the trailer's 24. I've got a bigger truck. It doesn't fit in my garage. And with the way my yard's laid out, there's 13 feet to the garage, 32 feet, and then 18 feet in the back. And then the height, I would also like enough to put a lift in there to work on my cars, stuff like that. I think the only other variance was the side yard. And that I kind of wanted to tuck as close, you know, behind the house as possible. And I don't know what other variance I think there was. Maybe one more. Oh, the square footage. And that's because it's just a roundabout size for a building.

Tom, do you have any questions?

Yeah, I know you're trying to restrict it because we asked all every line, sewer line, also to the amount of concrete that you used to put it down. If you had to go out behind the house, it would not need to be like that.

Yeah, I've tried a couple orientations. We've been through a couple, and the one having two driveways on one lot is like it doesn't make it.

Oh, right, I remember that now. Yeah, if I could interrupt, Chair. I forgot about that. Yeah, this isn't his first submission. Staff speed him up on some previous submissions. There was one with a second driveway coming off of the side of the lot.

Yeah, I have, I think, 212 square feet of footage, frontage, I mean. So, I mean, it's right there on the edge, but the driveway was so long that it didn't meet the impervious. So, yeah, we...

I don't have any problem with this at all, personally. You know, the question I do have is, like, the vegetation on this... I only have one question. I don't have a problem with the build. On that side yard, are you going to keep the vegetation on that side, like the trees, or if you have to take them down?

There's like a group of, I don't know, little trees and it's just something I haven't kept up. That's coming down. I just removed two trees. I don't know. I've got these silver maple trees, and so far I've taken down, I think, maybe 11 of them because they just keep getting bigger and the roots start getting into things. They're all pretty shallow.

Well, the only thing is from an aesthetic point of view from the side, if you put in something like green giants or something to dress it up a little bit, I don't have a problem with that.

You have no problem with that? My question was about the trees. Right.

I think, Mark, maybe we're looking at an old photo that is showing some large trees there. And it's sounding like you've cut those down. Those are gone. And so, yeah, I think what the board is asking for, if you could soften the look of the side of the garage with some landscaping or arborvitae or something there of your choosing.

I could do that. I would put trees like they have on the tree lawn, something that won't get super...

Right, so enormous?

Yeah.

No, I mean, this is somewhat of a long list of variance requests, but some of these we've just missed the mark, like the 48-square-foot size variance and the 13-foot separation from the house... as opposed to 20. It's just not that substantial. Same with the height. He's asking for a three-foot, quarter-inch variance. The one that seems large is the variance to not have the garage all the way behind the house. But the way the house is oriented in the... This is almost sort of like acting as a corner lot.

Yeah, the 57 feet is a large variance, but... And then we told him you can't have a driveway on that side, so then he couldn't do that anyhow. He tried to. And you also don't want to cover your electric and gas lines. You don't want to cover your sewer lines, and then you've got a swale in the back. So you're kind of locked in.

Well, the next step is to attach it, and then the engineering gets so expensive that it may make it... I don't know, it may not be possible.

Well, and what I had told the applicant about the attaching it, and that's why I included a photo. I think the front elevation of your house looks great representing that time period. It's going to imbalance the look of that front of the house if you had to do that.

Yeah.

I mean, in my opinion.

Yeah, that was a couple of my questions I had. So I guess we can stay here. A lot is an odd, I would say almost a... that due to his structure and harsh financial hardships so to me those are two circumstances like how again how would he do that how would he lay that out how would that attach especially being that he would be attaching it to to the lower side of his already i guess lower side of his uh elevation right the whole point of this is to have it taller for the trailer yeah yeah so i think that would actually be less aesthetically for the neighbor across the street right since we don't do public hearing analysis, we're allowed to make a motion. Do you want all three of these variances separate motions?

You could say as submitted on the application.

Okay, so I would like to make a motion to approve I'd like to make a motion for variances for the property of 26004 for the 9927 Joanne Place. I'd like to make a motion to approve the three variances as submitted, a 7-foot variance to the 20-foot setback, a 57-foot variance for the detached garage to be located behind the house, garage height of 12 feet. I'd also like to ask the applicant if they could look at as one of the conditions to this approval of these variances is if they look at planting some vegetation or something on that of your desire to help the neighbor across the street with their look. So do I have a motion? Second. Roll call.

Mr. Griffith?

Yes.

Mr. Brown?

Yes.

Mr. Allen? Yes. Mr. Chancellor?

Yes. So all those motions approved for you. Does this go to council then?

So it will go to... There's another sort of bureaucratic step to this. I'm going to just call it what it is. It will go to... City Council has 30 days to... Reject this typically they waive the 30 days So the first opportunity to waive the 30 days will be the 14th And so on the 15th You'll be good to go So you don't have to attend that council?

Yeah, right it's up to you if you choose to do that our council rep here would be the one kind of presenting that to Council Okay, thank you, thank you for your time thanks 2458 Edison Boulevard, 26-005. If you could step up, state your name and address for the record, please.

Hello. I represent TNT Services. My name is Todd Carver. It's 2458 Edison Boulevard. So thanks for everyone for hearing our appeal. Kind of to recap our business model, T&T Services supports the trucking industry. We provide power washing, detailing, and body shop services to dealerships, private owners, and trucking companies. And we've been up here since 2022. We opened our shop and we've been growing our customer base. We service Cleveland, Akron, Canton area. Dealerships such as numerous international freight liner, Peterbilt dealerships, as well as leasing companies like Penske and Ryder that deal with these things. So... We've reached a point where in order to provide full service detailing to our customers, we have to start painting frames. We're at that crossroads where we can't grow our business anymore without doing that service. So in order to do that, we need to install a commercial cross-draft vented semi-truck paint booth. And it requires a 45-foot wide building to do so. And that brings us to the practical difficulty of putting a building up is the current zoning restrictions of a 50-foot building set back on the rear of the property would place the buildings too close together. And we would not be able to get trucks in and out of either building safely. So our service trucks are up to 33 feet long. Semi trucks are around 31. And so TNT is asking for a 20 foot variance on the setback. And that plan would provide approximately 60 feet of space in between the buildings. And that should give us plenty of space to get these trucks in and out of the building safely. We feel like the building and the variants won't be detrimental to the surrounding property and businesses in any way. It's already developed property with catch basins and gravel. It's surrounded by industrial businesses on all sides with similar vehicles and activity. behind our existing building so it will not be easily seen from the street. No additional noise or dust or any other annoyances to the neighboring businesses. And in addition, all of the functions, the supporting functions will be done in the building. It shouldn't impact surrounding businesses at all. And in addition, finally, it's going to provide several new jobs to the community.

And then I just want to read in for the record that this was, you sent this last Thursday, I think, was on planning commission, and they did approve.

correct as well and that the site plan for planning commission was approved with conditions and the fire department has approved the project yeah i think the fire department um actually likes the separation between the buildings um just for fire safety but also for emergency response then they can maneuver more easily as well um to back up and turn around and get off the site if they had come onto the site just noting you know uh the request here

If you take a look at the pictures, the precedence is already set over here. That building is substantially closer, so therefore there is a precedence there. And the ventilation, that separation of the buildings, that's good because you're dealing with fumes and paint and flammables. So that'll be good. Okay.

Did you have photographs you wanted to show? I had photographs of some before and after pictures of truck frames. And that, you know, if you can imagine a truck, a company's trying to sell a truck, a used truck. But before and after pictures are dramatic. It would greatly increase the asking price for a truck.

Yeah, I've done frame up restorations. Yeah, exactly.

I know the dramatic part. We can detail a truck. You know, the interior looks like new, but if the frame looks like this, you can't sell it. You can't sell it. They don't want it.

you know even though 20 feet sounds a little bit substantial it's so um sort of intensively being used um the space in that area that it's not really impactful um looking at all and there are there are no objections from no no i've received no comments from adjacent property owners

There are trees, like it's a grown-up area between our building and the company behind us. There's a chain-link fence as well.

Okay, very strategic. So I think with all those, I think we've answered kind of all the questions. We have approval from the fire department, which is huge in our book. Okay. So I'd like to make a motion for development variance 26-0005, a development variance request for 2458 Edison Boulevard for construction of an accessory structure within the 50-foot yard area. Rear yard setback. They're asking for a 20-foot variance on that. I make a motion to approve that variance request. Do I have a second? Second. Roll call, please.

Mr. Griffith? Yes. Mr. Allen? Yes. Mr. Brown?

Yes.

Mr. Kansler?

Yes.

Okay. Congratulations, sir.

Thank you very much. Thank you. You're welcome. Thanks. Glad to see you're growing your business.

Yes. Thank you for bringing new jobs to Twinsburg.

Seven additional employees potentially soon. It's awesome. It's great.

A couple things here. Approval of minutes for April 27, 2026. Do I have a motion to approve those?

Motion to approve minutes. A second. Second. Roll call.

Mr. Chancellor?

Yes.

Mr. Brown?

Yes.

Mr. Griffith?

Yes.

Mr. Allen?

Yes. Any communication plan?

Just remember, we don't have a meeting in July. But we have some cases stacking up for August, so. Add it to my calendar. Yeah, add it to your calendars. No, that was unfortunate last week, but we certainly had plenty of confusion flying around over that, so I wouldn't, it's not only on you, Chris. But we have, I'm going to say right now I have at least four applications. I may have five applications right now going for the August meeting. One of them is for another industrial building setback. And there's another garage in the batch. There's a signage one. Maybe a sunroom addition on a residence. Yeah, so we have our work cut out for us in August.

Okay. Councilman, any questions? Nothing.

All right. Thank you, sir. We have some unfinished business. We do? We do.

Oh, okay. Got you. Where's mine?

We have the election of officers. Oh.

Okay.

Okay. We're one short, but still, we have the chairman here.

Right. I think you weren't here.

Yes. We tabled it.

Of course. We saved that for you, Wes.

So I would like to make a motion to nominate Tom Allen for chairman of the BCA.

I'll second.

This is weird. I apologize. The second sheet of this has old names on it. It has Shannon Leonard, Michael Jameson. Yeah, that's not right. Motion for Tom Allen to nominate Tom. Did you say Tom Allen?

Yes.

Are we seconding that? Did somebody second? Oh, Ed seconded. Okay, sorry. I was looking at my wrong roll call sheet. Mr. Brown?

Yes.

Mr. Griffith?

Yes.

Mr. Allen?

Yes.

Mr. Chancellor?

Yes.

Awesome. And so then what should we do? A similar motion for a vice chair?

Make a motion that we nominate Rick Pratt for vice chairman.

Second. I got it before you.

You got it. Okay. Okay. We've got Ed first. We've got Tom first, Ed second. And who did we nominate?

Rick.

Rick, okay. Well, this will teach you not to be here, right?

It'll teach you.

Okay, Mr. Brown?

Yes.

Mr. Chancellor?

Yes.

Mr. Griffith?

Yes.

Mr. Allen?

Yes.

Okay, I got it. Yeah, I have it under my second page, and it has an old roll call thing. Yeah.

And then we just need to excuse Mr. Rickards. We have a motion to excuse him from today's meeting. I don't know. Right. We have a second.

Okay, second by Ed. And Chris, you made that motion. Yes. Okay. First, I'm having to reuse spaces here. Mr. Griffith?

Yes.

Mr. Chancellor?

Yes.

Mr. Brown?

Yes.

Mr. Allen?

Yes.

Okay.

And I go ahead and make a motion to adjourn the meeting.