Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Thank you. I'd like to call this 05/11/2026 planning commission to order. Roll call, please.

Del Reigno? Here. Smith? Here. Jones?

Here.

Felcone?

Here.

Apple will not be present, but we do have a quorum.

Great. Thank you. Can I get the recording, please?

Oh, yes. Sorry.

The Westlake Planning Commission applies with the Pius Sunshine Law. It's a procedure. The meeting will be called to order, and the clerk will take the roll call. The commission will then approve the minutes of the previous meeting. The council representative will then present the council report.

Commission business, when your project is called, please come to the podium. Place your drawings on the document table, and they will then be projected on the screen for all to see. The applicant or representative making a request will print their name and address on the attendance sheet and state their name and address for the record. Please make a short presentation speaking into the microphone. Everyone making comments or presentation to the commission must speak into the microphone.

City staff will give a staff report on the project. We will then hear from the audience. Any member of the audience that wishes to speak will have to speak into the microphone after printing their name and address on the attendance sheet and stating their name and address for the record. We ask that audience members speak one at a time after giving their name and address. This is for the purpose of the meeting. Please speak clearly. The applicant will respond to public comments. Again, we ask that people speak one at a time. The Planning Commission members will have an opportunity to make comments and ask any questions that they may have. The commission will then take action.

Garage Plaza is being tabled.

Got it. Okay. Thank you very much. Can I get a council report, please, mister DelBrigo? Council report?

To report.

Okay. Thank you. Just to let the audience know that the Farage Plaza development plan will be tabled tonight. So if you're here for that, you can go home. And, also, you do not have to sign in. That was an older recording. You just have to state your name when you come in and your address. So the first item on the agenda Minutes. Oh, sorry. I forgot the minutes. Can I have approval of the minutes, please, from April 6?

Yes. Motion to approve the minutes from 04/06/2026.

Second. Roll call please. Smith? Yes. Jones?

Yes.

Belcone? Yes. Del Ragneaux?

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Alright. We'll go into business. The first item on the agenda is Bretton Woods condominium sign plan

yes so the purpose is to replace existing post and panel sign with a new post and panel sign it will be just slightly above grade to actually be a freestanding monument style sign. The current one limits visibility. You can barely see it in that top image there, for example. So this new design will be much more effective in terms of wayfinding. And it's a more visually appealing sign as well.

So the size of it, it's not very big actually when you actually count up the actual area that counts towards sign area. So if both sides are counted as sign area, you're only looking at 20 square feet. They're allowed 30 square feet. The height is a little bit little higher because they would like to have it raised up two inches or so or somewhere two to four inches, something like that above grade. And that's just so that they can have mulch underneath it that will not necessarily be in complete contact.

But certainly we'll have that look about it. It's a high density urethane HDU foam based engineered sign material. So very commonly used. Brown background, white routed letters. No illumination. It'll be in the same island as the current one. Just as I pointed out in a much better location. The setback from the edge of the sign to the right of way, it's about four feet. The existing one is about seven feet. So it also encroaches.

Setback from the driveway seven feet from east and west. And there will be no change to the landscaping, only replacing the sign at this time. And I think I've probably covered some of these things already. The setback 10 feet is what's required for the right of way. So it does require modification before feet about four feet from it.

There just simply is not a way to really push it back farther because of the size island that it's going into. 10 feet is what's required from the driveways. It does require modification to be at about seven feet from the driveway. And as far as the unobstructive site zone in Toll 30.01, It does apply when signs are between 30 inches and six feet above curb level. And they're located less than 20 feet back from both the driveway and the right of way. So this will require a modification. It's just a little bit over 30 inches. That height difference being two to four inches, something like that, is very de minimis and should still allow adequate visibility. The sign is also on. It's angled.

So should not be that much of an issue. It's existing. So there's a proposed and there's the existing. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Bedell. Welcome.

Hi. Benjamin Geschke, g e s c h k e. 892 Dutton Drive, Twinsburg, Ohio. I'm not gonna reiterate everything he just said. He pretty much hit the nail on the head. I'm happy to answer any questions you may have.

Great. Thank you. Would anyone from the audience like to comment on this project? Seeing none, I'll start with my commissioners. Missus Smith?

I think it's a handsome looking sign. It's an improvement to, to what they have now. It'll be helpful for wayfinding, and I have no problem with the exceptions. I mean, it's just logical the you designed it.

Thank you.

So those are my comments.

Thank you. Mister Jones?

Yeah. I have no issues with it. I agree the current sign is not very useful for wayfinding purposes because of where because of the angle or lack of angle to the street. So this is a better solution.

Thank you. Councilman Dorenga?

Are there there's no illumination currently on that sign? Correct. And you're not planning on putting any on it?

I'm not. No. Maybe a landscaper the road.

Not me.

No. Other than that, I'm good.

Great. I agree with my fellow commissioners. Can we have a motion, please?

Sure. Based upon the findings of fact, I move to approve the Bretton Woods sign plan with the following. One, modification for the sign to be less than 10 feet from the planned right away and less than 10 feet from the edge of the driveway to allow a two inch gap beneath the sign for mulch and to allow its placement within the unobstructed site zone and for the sign to be located within the unobstructed site zone.

Second. Roll call, please. Jones?

Yes.

Felcom? Yes. Del Rechno? Yes. Smith?

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you.

Thank you

very much.

Have a good night.

You too. Next item on the agenda, Sequoia Financial Group sign plan.

Yes. 1 American Boulevard. So this is a new wall sign for major office tenant, Sequoia Financial Group to be located above the 5th Floor, east facade of the AG Building centered on the brick parapet just above the windows, balanced symmetrically above the windows. You'll see that in a minute. Pursuant to section 1.3 of the master sign plan Crocker Park. Office tenants are allowed wall signs along this frontage facing Crocker Road. And they're allowed one sign per floor at 100 square feet. So this will be the sign for that floor. And there's no other office tenant existing here. So not an issue with that.

Logo and letters, reverse lit channel letters. So it's halo illumination, which has always been very popular. 2,700 ks, which is a good color. Temperature for that. Pin mounted fascia to the fascia about 98 square feet. Does comply. No waivers or zoning modifications are required. And there's I don't usually say precedent, but there are some that you've seen even recently. Here are some examples. And don't worry Richard. I won't I'll try to leave a little something for you. But this is this is kind of an easy one because there's no waivers required for this. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Welcome.

Hello. Good evening. My name is Richard Levitz with RK Levitz LLC. And I'm here on behalf of Sequoia and FastSigns. Truly there wasn't much more to add to the presentation. The only thing I wanted to add is that this is really a very good example on following the design guidelines and the purpose of having that document to facilitate it for you know the collaboration between the city Crocker Park and the tenants. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. Would anyone from the audience like to comment on this project? Seeing none, mister Jones?

Looks great. I have no issues with it.

Great. Councilman Doregno?

All good.

Missus Smith?

I'm good with it as well.

Great. I agree. Can we get a motion, please?

Yes. Based upon the findings of fact, I move to approve the Sequoia Financial Group sign plan.

Second. Roll call, please. Bill Reigno? Yes. Smith? Yes. Belcone? Yes. Jones?

Yes.

Motion carries. Great. Thank you very much.

Take care.

Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is Corsaro and Associates site improvements, a generator.

Yes. 28,025. So this is a backup generator. It's consistent with prior approvals for similar uses that require uninterrupted operations. Concrete pad code requires it to be at least 10 feet from the building. So it is outside the front rear setbacks. It does encroach approximately five feet into the side yard setback which is why you're seeing it tonight because this does require a zoning modification. Which modification is an exception. Another way of saying an exception. So it is the most feasible location given their layout and adjacency to utilities.

It's not allowed to be in the front of the building per code. Rear placement just puts it farther away from the connection points. Not practical for what it is. It will produce less than 49 decibel levels at the residential property line meeting the 50 decibel level. And no vibration is expected due to the concrete pad and the distance to the nearest lot line.

So the guide plan is in support of this request. And it meets the performance standards as well. The noise, it's equal to light traffic that is at the lot line. It goes down significantly less than farther away. And certainly adjacent to the homes, it should be barely perceptible.

And these things, other than just testing them once a week I have one outside of my office that is in a cycle to be tested once week. Other than that it will only be running when it's needed. Let's see. It's not in a location that will be noticeable. Those are the distances to the different homes. So two sixty five, what is it to about three sixty five feet away. What's the minimum? Two ten feet away. So nothing is is very close. Plus there's wooded area that's in between that'll also help to muffle any sound from it.

Okay. With that said, so it just, requires a modification to encroach, within the side yard setback.

Thank you. You, Bedell.

Welcome.

Hello. Kevin Double with Double Enterprises. I'm representing Casaro and Associates. I'm the contractor installing it.

Great. That's about it. Nothing to add. Thank you. Would anyone from the audience like to speak on this project? Seeing none, missus Smith.

Having reviewed it, I I guess the question was answered, or perhaps you could amplify. How often do you anticipate that the owner will cycle or use the generator?

We'll set it up for a biweekly test, so every two weeks for ten minutes. Okay. And that'll be during the day.

Okay. And then other than that, just when needed.

Right.

Okay. And then as far as the location goes, I don't see any other place to put it on the lot. So, I have no issues with this.

Thank you. Councilman Doregno.

I am

okay. Thank you. Mister Jones?

Thank you. Yeah, I think that actually putting it in the rear of the building might even put it closer to residential properties from the looks of the site plan. So I think this is actually probably the least obtrusive location anyway. So I certainly don't have an issue with the the setback variance that's or not a variance in this case but modification that's needed so no issues.

Thank you I agree with my fellow commissioners can we have a motion please.

Yes based upon the findings of fact I move to recommend approval of the Coursera and Associates just Coursera and Associates plan with the following. One, a modification is granted to permit the generator to encroach within the side yard setback and two, our standard conditions.

Thank you. Roll call, please. Balcombe? Yes. Del Reigno? Yes. Smith? Yes. Jones?

Yes.

Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda is Freehold Investment Group site improvements.

Yes. This is 26614CenterRidgeRoad. So it's renovation of a vacant office property. So they're in the process of purchasing. Their intent is to modernize the site and enhance it aesthetically. And I'm going to really be brief with this and let them have a chance to go through this with you. So eventually signage as you can see really a nice modern look to the building that really needs to be refreshed. Different parking solution in the rear. Front parking is certainly something that needs to have some discussion. And that's existing.

And installing a trash enclosure as well. Fire Department has some comments relative to fire safety issues, but nothing really that pertains to tonight. Guide plan does identify this as office and office lab in support of this request. And there are some modifications as part of this for the front parking that you see. It does encroach into that front setback.

Again it is existing but there's some real functional concerns that we have about it even as an existing lot. Some of the things are not quite applicable at this time. Can't review the ground sign. We don't have a design for it. Lighting plan, we don't have a design for that yet. Trash enclosure. I think the location of it is fine. Don't that yet at this point. And then design review materials. I think colors and materials they selected I think will be very nice.

There is a concrete block to be painted that just is a modification just because our normally we would say don't. If it's a new building we wouldn't allow painted concrete block. But in an existing building it's allowed. But a modification is is just kind of a formality. So I let them go through the actual design drawings with you. And that's it. Okay. So that said, you have do you have anything that you're going to want to project? Any drawings or anything like that? Or do you do you need to use the computer next to you? No.

We can.

We have a couple of things we can project as the conversation goes on. So Jeremy Smith, architect, Onward Design Collaborative, 18119 Detroit Avenue, Lakewood.

Sean Nugent with One Constructive Van Freehold Investment Services 219 Bradley Road, Bay Village.

Great. Welcome.

Thank you.

You just make sure you speak in the mic too. Thanks.

Okay. Yeah. So as as Jim mentioned, you know, we're kinda giving this building new life. You know, we had we had the the privilege of kinda walking through with them a couple months ago. And, you know, really, it's just about maintaining the existing but giving

it seal.

You know. Maintain the existing openings but giving it new materials, new finish. You know, in some cases, we've done some research on what's going on above the lentils because there's a lot of stuff in some of these large openings that's deteriorating. And so, you know, we certainly we have some updated elevations we could share which are pretty much the same to show, you know, that we're gonna have to, you know, rebuild some of the areas above some of the larger glass in the front of the building.

Mhmm.

But largely, it's a spec office building with two tenants on the 1st Floor and one on the lower level. And, you know, looking at, you know, the access, both the parking lot with a handicap space in the upper level parking lot and then another one as we move down to the lower level. Some of the things that I think are on on the list that we certainly need to do are enlarging the apron and the drive aisle. I think right now it's it's around like 12 feet and we'd wanna increase that to 22. Here we could I know that we can either show the we can either show you the one that we submitted or or I think what we're working on is the current kind of idea.

So this is this is the plan that we're looking at. We're enlarging that dry vial down to 20 up to 22 feet. And then in this case, we're looking at just, you know, kind of a fence a decorative fence along the the sidewalk and a couple of spaces in the front. And I think based on your notes, might make sense to project this up here for you guys to see. Definitely.

And so this is this is what Sean and I have been talking about with the team, you know, adding a three foot buffer off the back of the sidewalk. You could still have a decorative fence if you want adding a little bit more parking that's, you know, running parallel to the street, you know, we would still enlarge that wanna enlarge that apron so that we could get the, you know, the in and out. But but giving us 12 spaces in front which would would be plenty for those two those two tenants on the upper level. And then as you move down to the lower level, we had talked a little bit about the trash enclosure and given the location and some of the early conversations we've had with you know, contractors and paving that I think we'd have like a poured concrete retaining wall kinda around the trash enclosure as we deal with the slope on the the side of the building. And then we had talked and I think there was a note about about kinda the head in parking and the headlights on the lower parking lot.

And we think that, like, with any cut and fill, we're gonna generate a berm. And and then that would kinda give us a give us some light blockage for the residents behind.

Mhmm.

And and then as it comes to the material palette, you know, really warm warming up the building, you know, with, like, a luxury PVC kind of horizontal plank. And so that'll give us the warm look, but also give us the maintenance and durability that we that we could kind of avoid from natural wood. And then, again painting painting the building black and adding new storefront in the front and kinda treating all the windows the same as fixed storefront windows.

What's Sorry. It's going crazy.

It's it's probably important to note this did start out as completely a spec renovation that we were gonna do. And even as recently as this week, we've gotten some signed LOIs and some interested parties as tenants. One of those tenants kind of prompted the more significant addition to the front parking lot. We had kind of already talked about potentially a landscape screen or something to kind of beautify that front lot. If you guys have seen this lot, it's it's a very, the elevation change from the street to the back is considerable.

It's almost an an entire story of that building. So and at roughly over 5,000 square feet, we're trying to create that back, as kind of a whole separate, kind of facade for the tenant that would occupy the lower level floor. So, com complete. So we'd we'd be adding storefront windows and, you know, some sort of Conair type commercial window system and door system out front. All the windows would be replaced. There's nothing worth salvaging in the existing building. They're all currently wood frame like an old Pella or something. They're all rotted out.

Mhmm.

So we'd move to a more commercially styled, window, fit just fixed window on those, side elevations. Again, cable rail fence, some sort of little deck or patio, structure out front, and then a, those are aluminum awnings. We've used those on on several other projects, and it at least this one would be kind of configured like a Sean, you should

be able

to it looks like you're pointing this stuff on your screen. Could you put it on the If you move over one, you can while you're pointing, we can thank you. Sorry about that.

That's okay.

Well, that that that shows you side elevation and Right. Kind of the window systems that we'd be proposing. That canopy structure which again would just be an aluminum sunshade would be both on the facade, the front facade and the rear facade just to kind of beautify things and kind of create something that looks a little more like a authentic storefront for those folks.

Great. Anything else to add? Would anyone in the audience like to speak on

this project?

Seeing none, missus Smith.

I think it's it's a nice update to that building. I I drive by that almost every night.

So

It needs something.

Yeah. It really, it'll be a great update to the site as well as the building. Honestly, I I guess I could pick at it but I I don't have any issues.

Great. Thank you. Councilman O'Ragneaux?

No. I think it's definitely long overdue. Parking lot wise, I'm I'm hesitant to have fencing in the front roadside, I guess, is my concern. The three foot buffer, I think there was a plan that had to give us a little bit more space from the sidewalk that I think I'm leaning more towards than having a screening at the front side. But that's just my opinion.

And then tenant wise, so you're looking two tenants on the lower level or two, I'm sorry, two tenants on the upper level and one tenant on the lower level. And there's obviously more parking on the lower level than there is on the upper level. So is that from a development standpoint is that a concern? And then is there any way of getting from the lower level to the upper level if internally?

At least with the conversations we've had it has not been a significant concern for the potential tenants. I can tell you the what prompted the existing, kind of redesign of that upper lot, was a tenant that had some elderly females in that office setting that that certainly said they did not wanna climb up that hill, but, no one else has had any issues with it so far. Okay. One one of the biggest, and I think I know what you're getting at with that front lot. One of the biggest challenges is as we bump so let's say if we did as designed with car lights pointing north and car lights pointing south

Mhmm.

So so north and south loaded. As we come down that hill, it gets really steep very quickly, and then we start talking about retaining walls and all sorts of really significant structures that we would need to kinda hold that upper parking lot back. Mhmm. So I think for what we have for the site, I think we're we're kinda kinda stuck with kinda backloading folks, but but we haven't had any significant negative feedback other than the one tenant who asked us to create what we could up front. Okay.

And then the tenant wise, any guesses at how many employees they're looking at between the ones that and recognizing that you have interest in them but not selling on it but is it

Yeah not significant and I think again probably worth noting we do think for the lower level we'll have to come back through for health and wellness designation which we believe is a conditional use for that lower level. So there'll probably be some more conversations about that particular tenancy. I don't know where else I was going with that.

No, that's fine.

Other than that, I think I'm

So that health and wellness, he only has three to four private clients at a time. The the upstairs I think that whole office I think they were talking about 10 employees 10 to 11 employees. Okay. Good.

I'm I'm other than that I'm okay.

Great. Mister Jones?

Thank you. I mean obviously we're still missing some details on this right? So I mean we're we're gonna be you know seeing this again before we approve it. But you know the I have a few. I will say in general, I like what you're doing. I think the building itself, I I like the design. I it's gonna it says as others have noted, it's gonna be a significant improvement to that building. And I'm glad to see you're finding a way to repurpose it. That's that's great. I definitely will wanna see more details about that front parking and particularly how it's going to how it's gonna be landscaped.

And I realize that that's gonna be a function of exactly what, you know, design you land on. Sounds like you're still kind of back and forth between two possibilities there, whether it's double loaded or single loaded. And, you know, recognizing the issues you have with the grade there, it definitely drops off quickly. So, know, that will limit the amount of space you have there. So you'll have to get a little bit creative with how that area gets landscaped.

We definitely want there to be a separation, you know, a a visible separation between the sidewalk and that and the south edge of that lot. I'll also wanna see that driveway dimension a little better, know exactly how that apron is going be widened, know what that all looks like as it hits the street. You know it's showing at 22 feet wide right now which is pretty narrow. I know this isn't a huge traffic generator or whatever but you still want to make sure it functions. I mean that is especially for cars heading west turning into that.

It's pretty tight. Have to almost come to a stop to make that right. So we want to make sure that that driveway works as well as it can given the constraints. And then, probably the only other concern I have, you know, it does look like you're gonna be increasing hard surface on this site and it does drain south to north. So I'll definitely want to see storm water design or at least the concept, you know, how that's going to work.

You know, I'm assuming that the back part of this site drains northward to somewhere and it appears, you know, towards towards probably forest and maple those streets behind you. So you know we won't need to make sure that that's accounted for and that you know you know how that's going to be handled so that there's no you know negative impact on the neighbors to the north and west. So, but I'm sure that can be accomplished. It's just a matter of getting the plan figured out. So I'd like to see that, figured out at, in a future submittal. That's really all I have.

Okay. Thank you.

Thanks. I just had a question about you said the lower level, they'd have three to four clients. Is that, like, the whole day, or is that on an hourly?

Pro hourly. I think that would be an hourly.

Hourly. Okay. Got it. And then the other one, the op the, upstairs, the 10 to 11 employees, will they have clients coming in there too or no?

No. I believe that's just an office space. Great.

Thank you. Yeah. Have no problems with it, but we can approve it with some of the items missing because it's coming back to us. Right?

It's coming back to you.

Okay. Alright. Can I get a motion, please?

We'll be looking to table this. Right? We'll be able to. Yeah. Yeah. Since it's coming back yeah

motion to table

yes so sorry just want to see the name of it motion to table the freehold investment group site improvements the to the 06/01/2026 meeting.

Second. Roll call, please. Smith?

Yes.

Wait. Hold on. Apple oh, no. Jones?

Yes.

Bellcombe? Yes. Del Reigno?

Yes.

Motion carries. Great. Thank you. We'll see you back.

Thanks. Thank you.

Next item on the agenda, Farage Plaza development plan will also need to be tabled. Can I get a motion for that, please?

Yes. Motion to table the Farage Plaza development plan to the 06/01/2026 meeting.

Second. Roll call, please. Jones? Yes. Falcone? Yes. Del Reigno?

Yes.

Smith? Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is ordinance twenty twenty six thirty one, a rezone for 26814 Center Ridge Road.

Yes. So this was tabled to this meeting. So I don't really have anything new to report. The idea of this goes along with the conceptual subdivision. And I think the preferred subdivision by the developer would have this rezoned so that he could develop single family residential lots adjacent to Center Ridge Road.

But you'll see also on the agenda tonight where the subdivision has been laid out leaving these parcels along Center Ridge Road as commercial properties. There's probably not much to talk about that really. Kind of went through everything already. Okay. So, don't know. Okay. Do you want to just move on to the next one? Any anything new to add to that, gentlemen?

Yeah, I mean.

Or what that might be for.

Well, it's kind of. Based on yeah. So this is something Yeah. This one here.

Name and address, please.

I'm sorry. Edward Pavosek. 17 Bless you. 79 Granite Court here in Westlake. I'm with Custom Homes and Development, EFG.

Kevin Hoffman, Polaris Engineering and Surveying.

Welcome.

34600 Chardin Road, Willoughby Hills, Ohio.

Thank you. Anything to add then?

Yes. To kind of bring you up to speed a little bit since you weren't here at the last meeting as well too, miss Falcone. We did is some of the questions with some of the other members were about buffering, and some things came up in the PZL regarding another incident down the street at at at Hail Mary's. So since our last meeting, I've I've pretty much got a good plan with the plaza owners. So and we met with them.

We went through a couple different concepts and stuff like that to kinda help beautify that area and to also eliminate any future, like, noise issues and conflicts that could develop between the the plaza and the the new residences that I'll be building homes for. We conceptually right now, and we pretty much got it all ready to go, that will happen. These mounding here is going to be a 20 foot mound, about four feet tall with arbovitaes on top of it, the giant greens, and then also a fence, a six foot privacy fence that will be on there. This will also encompass half of the it's gonna be on the plaza owner's property, and the other half will be on our properties except for behind the plaza. We'll be a 100% on the properties that I'm obtaining.

This will allow to deed restrict it. We'll deed restrict the use of of that property. They they're looking to rezone it to help bring in people for their businesses there for, like, farmers markets in the mornings on a Saturday, Sunday, limited use in the summer months for outdoor patio for the restaurant they just signed a lease with, by the way, for a new Turkish type of restaurant that's coming in there. So it will be this this area then will be used by the tenants instead of just going to waste as a residential. But we would we would deed restrict their property as well as my properties for ours, for privacy, for things like that.

And we'll also declare in our HOAs when we get to that point of of of besides being in our ARB, which will be strict restricting all these deeds and notify them of what we're doing here so there can be no conflict. And and also in the HOA, we'll put it in there as well too. HOA will be maintaining all this as well too. So they would be the ones so all the residents here would be maintaining these mounds and other things in that matter. So this would eliminate any future what ifs.

You know, so if, you know, if someone moves in the house and says, I didn't know this, well, it's gonna be de restricted and it's part of the HOA docs. So those are the type of things that we would be able to mitigate any type of confusion or anything like that in the future. We also put homes on here. These are all our model home right now we have in Lake Forest. It's 4,200 square feet, so you can see how big these lots are. So these aren't small lots. Like the corner one, we're almost a full acre here on it, and we're gonna maintain most of the trees that will be here, and we'll add some more buffering when we get to that that phase. So that will then eliminate additional. So we could even add with your suggestions as well if you want more buffering. I'm I'm up up to that as well to that.

So that can eliminate all those situations. So, ideally, I know we have the other plan coming in here as well too. Ideally, this is what we're looking for for the rezoning of the business district of the general office and the general business to the residential on it. It makes more sense in that area, especially the people before us too. They're putting an office building right next door. So we want them to succeed on on that aspect of it. So that's kind of what has happened since the last meeting and kinda get you up to date too, chairman and chairwoman, excuse me Thank you. And go from here. Here's the other map too just to kinda introduce that. This is the areas that we're looking to rezone on there. So

Great. Thank you.

Welcome.

Would anyone from the audience like to speak on this project? You can come forward and state your name, and we have about a two minute time limit so we can to everyone.

The rezoning only right

now. It's rezoning only first. So this would not be for the actual project. It would just

be rezoning. Good evening. My name is Maronika Pohara. I live at 2437 Chestnut Drive.

I'm sorry. I didn't quite get your your name or address. What is it? 243

It's Veronica Pohara. I live at 2437 Chestnut Drive.

Thank you.

I'm gonna read because I did a little bit of so I oppose the proposal because it's inconsistent with the existing neighborhood character. And to me, it raises serious concerns about the traffic, stormwater runoff, tree preservation, and overdevelopment of the parcel. The current plan appears to maximize density while removing all the mature trees and green buffering. I asked the commission to deny the application or require substantial revision, including preservation of existing tree canopy, reduced density, and conduct independent review of drainage and traffic impact. To me, this rezoning appears to benefit a single developer more than the public interest.

So I wanted to ask, why change the rezoning? What is the public benefit to have that rezoned?

Thank you. Yeah. We'll answer the questions. We'll have the developer answer the questions.

I just wanna just mention something.

Can you

get on

the mic please, ma'am? You have to stand on the mic so they can hear you. Yeah, any mic.

That's fine. I wanted to use their

That's fine. We'll just get closer and get on the mic.

Use the mic right here.

Yeah. Can.

Yeah. I I just saw that they left a little bit of tree area here because you couldn't possibly squeeze another lot, I believe.

Thank you. Thank you very much. You can come forward, please, and state your name and address for the record, and then about two minutes for comments. Welcome.

Thank you. My name is Sally Kennedy. I live at 2569 Dover Center Road, Westlake. I live in a 150 old house, and behind my house is a creek. And I wanna know, first of all, whatever development happens, I wanna know how far the last time I was here for zoning in that area, they put a restriction on how close to the creek people could build.

I'd like to know that. The other thing is is there are a number of residents that live on Dover Center. We all have the same questions. We are concerned about our property, the safety of our property, the lighting that will go on behind our house that could be distracted. And, you know, depending on development and whatever, if we get hoodlums in or whatever and people come across and a lot of us have garages that are right up to the creek, we wanna know that we are safe.

We wanna know we are protected. I'm telling you, my father was born in that house. A hundred and fifty years, there my father's born in there. I lived there when my parents were my parents were there. My son was born when I lived there, which I still do, and my grandchildren were born there. And I'm sure there's a lot of other people that have things to say. We are concerned about our property. We are concerned about the safety, the lighting, and we'd like some answers.

That sounds good. We'll get them for you tonight. Thank you. Would someone else like to speak? Welcome how are you?

Good how are you? Good. Rob Rogers 2538 Forest Parkway. I'm in support of it the houses at EFG builds high end quality custom homes I feel it's going to appreciate all the neighborhoods and I also feel from a commercial and residential standpoint being in commercial and I own plaza that's kind of a desolate part and a lot of vacant storefronts, and I know that Forest Parkway and Berkeley Estates are both can appreciate highly by the assets that are brought in there. The Ballach storefront, Claudette storefront, there's a lot of vacancies, And I believe that's in direct correlation to it not being a hotspot in Westlake.

I was born in Westlake, and I look at both the residential and the commercial aspects of it. In regards to property values, they're going to skyrocket in both of those obviously I have a vested interest because I do want a property in there but I feel that the million dollar plus homes that are built there the people that live there and bringing more people to that side of Westlake is going to do nothing but benefit both the residents and the commercial activity around there because there are a lot of vacancies and that concerns me as a citizen of Westlake. Thank you.

Thank you. Do we have another hand over here? Come on up. Welcome. Hi.

Good evening everyone. My name is Peggy Corrigan. I live at 2483 Dover Center Road. I've been here for about twenty years now. I came from Cleveland, and the neighborhood appeals to me for so many reasons. One of which is that beautiful area we have in the back, bald eagles, blue heron, and just all the nature. And so some of that I don't know that we can change.

You wanna

move over to the mic just a little nervous.

That's right. No. Welcome. I don't see the benefit either, quite frankly. I don't need a million dollar home behind my house to increase my taxes that I didn't ask for. Right? I mean, we're working class people on Dover Center for the most part. And I think that we need to focus on developing Centerbridge to look like, you know, Crocker Park area and make that more beautiful and appealing and walkable and and attractive to the community. Coffee shops. I mean, all sorts of little little shops like that, I think, would fit nicely, and I think Westlake is a desirable area.

I don't think we need more homes, especially when you're talking million dollar homes in this economy. Kids can't buy these things, and I don't know who'd wanna live back tucked in there. And then I always we're also worried about the traffic coming in and out, dumping on another load onto the street over there. I hope that all made sense. I am a little little bit nervous to be up here, but we're very, very passionate about this, this whole group back here and others, I'm sure, as well. Great.

Thank you so much.

So thank you.

Appreciate your time. Thank you. Anyone else? Come on up. Welcome. Hello.

Daniel Zantbauer. 2519 Dover Center Road. So three questions. One, I wanna make sure that the proper surveys have been done to adjacent properties. There's a lot of tree and foliage being removed. So making sure they're not encroaching on other people's properties while they're doing that. The stormwater basin is shown directly adjacent to the creek. So what what are the plans? Are they digging that down? Are they raising it up?

Either way, I think it changes the natural floodplain for the creek itself, which does flood almost yearly. And then what if what are the tree removal rules for the floodplain area or adjacent to the to the creek with the setbacks there, making sure they're not taking large diameter trees out of that zone. Thank you.

Great. Thank you very much. I think there was another hand over here. Come on up.

Madam chair, are we on we're still on just the zoning though. Correct? I think we need to Yes. We're starting to blend a little Most of the

comments have been regarding the actual development.

So I wrote all this down about the development, so you

don't have come back up.

We can do it again.

Yeah. We can do it again. Yeah. We'll have them answer it all at the same time.

We're just on zoning.

There's a

whole another one coming up. So

Yeah. I think it all kind of relates.

So give

me your address, please.

My name is Sarah Thatch. I live at 2425 Dover Center Road. My property directly abuts the proposed Cuyahoga Hardwoods subdivision, and I'm here to voice specific concerns regarding the transition of the 7.88 acres from a high functioning woodland to a 16 lot residential subdivision. So point one regarding Cahoon Creek and hydrology, the site plan clearly shows the proximity of Cahoon Creek. As the commission knows, this area of Westlake already manages significant water flow by removing the mature hardwoods that give the subdivision its name, we're losing a massive natural drainage system.

I'm concerned that the 16 proposed lots with their associated rooftops and driveways will create a funnel effect toward the creek and neighboring yards. My question for the record is has the engineering department reviewed a final storm water management plan that accounts for the loss of these specific mature trees, and what guarantees do existing residents have that our basements and yards will remain dry? Point two regarding buffer zones and setbacks. Looking at the preliminary plan, the proposed lots appear to back right up against existing property lines. We aren't just losing a view, we're losing the noise dampening and privacy that those woods provide.

I'm requesting the commission require a permanent conservation easement or a 50 foot wooded buffer along the perimeter where this development meets existing homes. Simply planting a few replacement saplings will not provide the same protection the existing canopy we have today has. Finally, point three, traffic on Center Ridge. Center Ridge Road is already a major artery. Adding 16 single family homes means potentially 30 to 40 additional vehicle trips per day existing near an already busy stretch.

I ask that the commission carefully vet the entry exit design to ensure it doesn't create a new bottleneck or safety hazard for those of us already navigating this corridor. In conclusion, I'm not opposed to Westlake's growths, but it must be responsible growth and I ask the commission to require a more robust buffering plan and transparent drainage study before granting preliminary approval to this plan. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Would anyone else like to speak on it? Over here to the right and then over to the left. That's alright. Come forward. You're you're good. My right. My right and then my left. Welcome.

Thank you.

My name is William Winter. I live at 26775 Maple Drive. My property basically backs right up to it, the red line here. Most of my questions basically have been asked by somebody else, but one question I would have is, is there any plan for any type of fencing mound as you mentioned that green line to the front of it? Just curious if there is any kind of plan for that at all.

We'll have them answer all the questions together. So yeah, if have any other questions, is that your only one?

Yeah, else been covered.

Traffic buffering, we got it. Drainage. Thank you. Someone over on my left had their hand up. Maybe it was my right.

Hello.

Welcome.

My name is Robert Oaks. Address is 2502 Forest Parkway. So I'd becky about this, but there's a number of problems with this. And I know this is a special request we're making because of the unusual situation. You've got commercially zoned currently in the front.

You have existing residential in the back, and both have been discussed concurrently, and you can't really discuss the rezoning without somewhat also discussing what's going on as to what they wanna do. You have a number of major problems here as some of the residents have already pointed out. I've lived there twenty years, and right now on Center Ridge during rush hour or in the morning or evening, it is almost impossible to get out on Forest Parkway, either making a left turn into outbound traffic going downtown or east or making a right turn. So you have Forest Parkway at Center Ridge on the North Side, and then the next street up, I forget the name of it, is it Clemson or whatever it is that it's the street that comes in the Center Ridge. You then have a street light there, which creates further problems, and then farther down, you then have obviously Dover Center.

So what their proposal as far as this rezoning they wanna do, they wanna put a street between Forest Parkway, and I believe it's Clemson, I can guarantee you you're gonna have accidents. It doesn't make a difference what type of, you know, road controls or engineering ideas they're going to use. As I was estimating probably based on what they're stating, they're going to probably have maybe 60 to 70 trips daily out of that one street in combination with what already exists. And now hearing the from a previous proposal concerning the redevelopment of that brick building on the North Side of Center Ridge, as far as them upgrading it, you're gonna have additional people going in and out there. It's gonna be a mess worse than it is now.

So that's the first problem. It doesn't make a difference how the engineer it's gonna be impossible. I can guarantee you're gonna have accidents. Second problem is with regards to the dispersal of the water as the other resident indicated. This has been discussed before. It was a while back. They wanted to put in a living facility back there. There was a number of issues with that, you know, in addition to the to the traffic. But regardless what they do by eliminating this in the back and turning it into residential homes, it's gonna scour the banks on both sides of that river. You're gonna have flood problems and you're gonna have buyer's regret for anybody who were to purchase a home when they're home when they're over with the first time their house gets flooded.

Because I'm assuming they're gonna have basins there. It's gonna get flooded. It's a peculiar property, unfortunately. It can't really be developed residential because they're gonna have problems. It's locked in there. So by limiting the tree canopy, as already has been pointed out, getting rid of the open drainage or the natural drainage and putting in roofs, dry ways, and everything else, regardless what they do, it's still not gonna work. It's So that's the other

been about two minutes so

Well, know but this is an important issue.

Two minutes.

I won't be another minute or two or longer. I think it's important because, you know, it affects my property value.

Well, I just wanna make sure everyone has a chance

to Oh, I understand. I understand. This is an unusual situation, a very unusual situation. In order for it to work, they'd

have to

grant so many variances if they go ahead with this bill to make it fit. Gonna be Swiss cheese is what it comes down to. It's not gonna be uniform as far as what they wanna do to get variances of the lines, lots, and everything else in the out of the sun. And the other problem is that Center Ridge, especially in that area, is primarily commercial. So now you want to intermix a residential zone with an area that's primarily commercial, especially with the previous things that have been discussed.

That brick building is being rehabilitated. That is an excellent idea. It looks fantastic. That is what should be at that vacant lot that's up front. So by putting this in here, you're changing the consistency of the business corridor along Center Ridge, and I think the developers should either withdraw the application or the or the vote should be to deny the application. Does that sound like that makes sense? Because otherwise, you're gonna have buyer's regret in about two or three years now when these people come back and complain about the noise and the traffic and the flooding.

Thank you. Someone else had a hand up over on this side. Yep. Come on up. Welcome.

Roberta Paul, 2461 Dover Center Road. My, lot abuts the creek, and it erodes. And I've been there over sixty years, and it keeps eroding and eroding and eroding. So my concern, basically, is the creek and the flooding and the eroding. I wanna know what they're gonna do to keep the banks of the creek from eroding, even downstream. It's gonna I know it floods downstream a lot. So that's my concern.

Okay. Thank you. Mhmm. Would anyone else like to speak on this? Come on up.

Welcome.

Good evening. Try and stick to two minutes.

Okay. Name and address first, please.

William Trowbridge. 2461 Chestnut Drive. We've been there twenty four years. We're in a 500 foot radius. We've submitted our written comments.

We wanted to highlight concerns, a lot of which you've heard here, drainage, storm water, floodplain impact, tree preservation, nothing new. Sam Collier raised these issues in April in a letter citing standing water behind Maple Drive. We've all had issues with that. Two abutters, two different sides raising the same concerns, which is not a coincidence. I want to share engineering.

The clearing permit, I think it was 3200, was issued to EFG. It had two conditions to draw to attention. All trees larger than four inches in diameter are to remain, And a 50 foot no disturbance buffer, which suggestion make the four inch tree rule a permanent condition of this plan. So not just the clearing permit, but apply it to the hopefully I'm good with the two minutes apply it to the north and the eastern boundaries, and then make the 50 foot no disturbance a permanent condition requiring a storm water analysis. You keep hearing that theme consistent.

Confirming no adverse impact to residential properties. We see the sewer trucks all the time on our street. Every other week we see them. And it's, I think, going to get worse. And I'm almost done here.

Require explicit re smell of the Commission, drainage, grading, design change during engineering affecting northern or eastern boundaries. Lastly, so the development, it's named Cuyahoga Hardwoods, which, if I understand correct, the permit requires hardwoods four inches or larger to be preserved. So, you know, if it's gonna happen, we'd like to just codify that.

Great. Thank you.

Thank you.

Would anyone else like to speak? Come on up.

Welcome. Good evening to everybody. My name is Judith Koenig. I live at 26743 Maple Drive, and my house is the first house that is directly behind the woods. So when it rains heavily, my backyard floods all the time. There is a drainage pipe. I'm not sure where it picks up. Some are in the woods. And just like these folks said, they see the city of Westlake trucks there. Every time it rains, god bless them, they're there all the time checking to see if there's flooding.

I can't tell you how many times they run a snake through there, and even days after it rains, you'll walk past the sewer right there at the berm, and you just, you hear the water rushing like someone's got a bathtub going. It just rushes and bubbles up. It looks like there's even detergent in there. So the question is, just like everybody else is saying, these trees, their root systems suck up a lot of water. And obviously our incline is not that steep coming down from the center ridge, but water flows down.

And if there's a problem there now I've lived there for forty four years next month. And I've seen I mean, my I actually had to put in a French drain around my house to protect my property because we have people that would have because we're on slabs, when it would rain really, really hard, you could hear the water would come up underneath in the the crawl space. And it's, of course, that damages the the integrity of the foundation. So I actually invested a number of years ago having a French drain put around my house. So I don't have that problem. But when my backyard is is flooded, you can see how the water is flowing to the French drain. So at least I'm happy that my French drain is working properly. And I think that's about it. Thanks for your time.

Great.

Thank you. Anyone else? Come on up.

Video?

Sure. You put it on the

Alright. Jeff Paul, 2543 Dover Center. Welcome. I'm my wife.

I'm his wife, Debbie Paul. Thank you.

So this is our backyard, and that's the creek. That's my stairs that go down to the creek, which I go into the creek on my property. That's that area that he wants to develop. This is 07/20/2023. So this is the most recent flooding of that property. And I have other videos that I can't find, but it happens quite often. So whatever he does back there is gonna make that creek much more intense during a heavy rain. That's it.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to speak on the project? Now that we've blurred zoning in in the project, we get it all out. Anyone else? Okay. Like

to see more of

it by trying

to get it.

You wanna give it to him or no?

It's up

to you.

If you're gonna say something new, you are welcome to come up. If you're gonna repeat the four things that I know or we all know five things, I would say we can keep moving. Because we gotta talk about it.

That one, do you have a minute? That's perfect.

You'd have to come up to the mic if you're gonna talk.

And, Kevin, you are aware that engineering has riparian setbacks now, aren't you? Is that new? Yes.

You are now.

Just came again.

Just briefly

Robert Oaks, 2502 Got Forest

it. I didn't know

there was any video evidence of that and that's what the most recent rains like, that just reinforces what I said earlier. No matter what type of water disposal system or what however they want to think they can fix this it's not gonna work and you're gonna have nothing but a problem with the city and the owners in the future. It's pretty obvious to me and everybody else.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Yep. Come on up. You gotta come to the mic though. This

is the phone I have as my neighbors have young children. Name real quick. Peggy Corrigan, 2483 Dover Center Road. Thank you. With all the schools in the neighborhood. Right? And the traffic and the kids walking. There's a lot of them up and down Dover Center and Center Ridge. You know, we know about the crossing guard that was killed here, unfortunately. And I just think, again, that's another component of this we didn't address and keeping it you know, bringing more people in and out of there. So that's it for me. Thank

you. Thank you. Alright. Anyone else? Okay.

Do we

wanna have them answer first, or we wanna discuss it first? I'm answering.

Maybe I'll let them answer.

Alright. So you I've got a list. You wanna where do you wanna start?

I I I think I got one as well too, the chairwoman. So I heard, like, kind of a theme as well too. And I'll just go down the list here, hopefully, I can answer them. And if you have any questions, two back after that. The engineering, this is not my first rodeo.

Stan, need you to face forward

and Okay. I'll read it to everybody here. I just wanted to give them respect. We our engineer, we have done a lot of infill projects in Westlake, Bay Village, Avon, the the areas that we kind of specialize is this. And being a resident of Westlake as well, we always wanna go overboard, so to speak, to make sure that everything is done properly.

So then I do see my fellow residents here as well. The drainage will improve, so all the water across Maple. There will be drains in the backyards that will occur. So typically, they're put at every, lot corner. One thing that we've done in the past, so we had engineering approve as well, is allowing us to go kinda in between the trees so we can preserve as many trees as we can in the rear of the property so we can keep a buffer between people's homes and such but the drainage will definitely improve on stuff.

Regarding floodplains and stuff like that, that stuff we still have to engineer but just based upon what we've seen so far it's not going to affect the streams and other means of of draining other people's on people's properties actually will improve on it as well too. I heard complaints about lighting. The the lights for the street lights will probably be three in there, which is a lot better than having the commercial. Commercial, you have light the parking lots up. And one thing I forgot to mention as well too, we're gonna restrict lighting in here, so there would be no lighting involved in that.

So there'll probably be three lights, I would assume, maybe four, that would be at the low level. I I know we have ordinances that protect the lighting and how would how how many looms it can have, the brightness of it, and the color of it. So that would that would be a lot less than having the commercial property up there as well. Commercial property would also bring more traffic, so you would have less and actually more water quality issues as well too because it's more you know, we wouldn't have to maintain the buffering and pretty much all the trees would grow this way we can maintain a lot of them and a lot of the trees there too are third fourth generation trees they're they're pin oaks they're not thing and in the name of the subdivision we just we don't have a name yet we just threw threw a place on it so that's still still to come on that aspect of it the just kind of reiterate on the flood plains There's flood plains and the return setbacks. We'll make sure I know we'll cover all those.

Water retention, ponds can be all over the place based upon engineering. But, again, they they they they won't affect anything downstream or anything like that that the engineering would be proper up regarding that. The modification we are asking for too I know they were saying variances and other things like that. The modifications are very minor compared to what has been already established by the board throughout the city. I live in subdivision that I put together and we have more modifications than this one on it and these are kind of I think with bigger setbacks like on the cul de sac lots it would actually be more ideal for city services, other things involved in it.

Let's see here. What else we have? The fencing, we leave it up to the the homeowners if they wanna put fences up around the properties. The fences that we would do and also upon recommendation is around the commercial areas. And I did talk to some people back about a month and a half ago who live on Dover Center, and this is one of the reasons why I don't need to put the mounting there.

I'm not required to, but it's something that would eliminate some of the noise that would go through through through to Dover Center. So I I I'm starting to, hear what people are saying, and I would like to try to accommodate that at this phase. And also, I know plaza, and like any new homeowner too, they wouldn't want the use of that. So it does benefit everybody in that situation. I don't Did I miss anything else?

But just to, like, on the rezoning, know we're on the rezoning. You know, commercial to residential, you have less lighting in residential, less traffic, less noise. You can keep more buffering the more the natural trees that are there right now. Drainage would be less. Water quality would be better. You keep the trees and those things. So that's the commercial would actually be opposite of that. Any other questions or anything I miss?

I'm looking.

Yep.

Sure. Yeah. Why don't we let mister Bedell speak to the

repairing Yeah. Question about the repairing if there are setbacks. So what a repairing zone is, that's the minimum setback from each side of the the creek. In this case would be Cahoon Creek. It is a 30 foot setback.

And this was actually approved back this ordinance change happened November 20. Just hasn't been codified yet. So it's not on the you can you can see it on the website just not it doesn't show up when you actually search the code of ordinances that the city has. And given what you've got on the screen right there you have a 30 foot setback as well which is what the zoning setback would be. So I'm not sure where the property line is in terms of where that bank is and if this would actually result in more backyard more rear yard or if it's the same 30 feet and I don't know if you if you can tell by looking at that Kevin.

If there's a difference.

Yeah I guess it depends where that 30 foot's taken, if it's taken from the top of bank or the ordinary high watermark of the the channel. So kind of hard to say right now with without and we did actually just complete our survey out there. So that's getting mapped. So as we go forward, we'll be able to probably have a little bit better idea of some of that.

Yeah. And the Planning Commission does not review setbacks like this. This is actually an engineering department ordinance. So you'll work with our city engineer on determining what what that setback would be.

What is that code

section? Is it is a nine zero seven point zero five.

The other thing as well, I'd like to make everybody knows, like, we've I've developed on waterways like this before in cities that are in Bay and Avon Lake and other. So we we we've dealt with repair and setbacks. We know what to bring to engineering. We know how to comply with all that as well.

I think the only other comment I that we didn't touch on was safety. I think one resident on the left hand side talked about safety. She's concerned about safety.

In residential, we all live in Westlake. I live in Westlake. And having the homes in here and not a dark woods, would feel that would be pretty safe. I mean, that the level of quality of people that would be living in these homes as well too, you know, would would would have that, you know, safety. We have a great police force everywhere we have. We have I cater a lot of athletes, and the athletes have private security people that come around as well too. So I I know I have interest in some high end athlete that will be back here. So that would actually enhance it. So but I I don't see any problems into that, you know, where it would add anything. I think it would definitely deter more of anything.

I see a hand up there. We're gonna talk on the board right now, so we're gonna hold off on any more public comments for this moment. Do you have anything else you wanna add to the residents?

No, I'll answer any other questions anybody has. Okay.

And then do we wanna discuss it?

In chamber?

No, I mean.

Yeah.

Mrs. Smith, comments on the I guess we're just talking about zoning or we're blending it all together?

Well, the comments were blended, so I kind of feel like we probably should blend it.

I think we have to keep saying stay on zoning right now.

Maybe maybe we'll take one round through about the zoning and then another round through about the about the plan.

We blend at this point.

So missus Smith, you wanna talk about zoning? Your comments for the rezoning?

Yes. Comments regarding rezoning. I appreciate very much that you provided the commercial plan. And I know what I said last month regarding thinking we needing to preserve commercial versus taking commercial away. I drive that section of road like basically every day, once, twice a day.

And I'm thinking that what you proposed with the residential all the way through right next to Forest Parkway and that subdivision and some of the other the duplexes that are further east and some of the other things. Talking about the north side of the road, I know the south side is pretty heavily commercial. But anyway, as you said, there'll be less lighting, less traffic, less noise. There'll be tree retention. You'll be putting less impervious area onto the site. So I think for zoning, rezoning to commercial, from commercial to residential, I'm in support of that.

Thank you. Mister Jones?

Thank you. So I think before I talk about my feelings on the rezoning, you know, I think it's really important to note, you know, a number of number of people have commented that, you know, the two are sort of inextricably tied together. I think it's really important to understand that the only portion of this site that's being looked at for rezoning is the portion fronting on Center Ridge. The back portion of this property, the portion adjacent to the creek, the portion behind all the homes on Dover Center is already zoned for residential. And that's what they're proposing.

So no matter which way we vote on this, that back portion is still being looked is still being considered for residential development by somebody and our vote will not impact that portion of it. The only portion that this initial vote for rezoning impacts is the part up along Center Ridge. So we talked and I mentioned in the last meeting, I was in support of rezoning that portion to residential because I do think it's better in keeping with what's immediately surrounding it, particularly Forest Parkway. I think that it's less intrusive to the residents on Forest Parkway. I think it fits better with that particular section.

And again, I don't have a major concern with the loss of a commercially zoned area. I think mister Rogers had come up previously and talked about some of the commercial vacancies in this area. And I think that, know, there in my opinion, there's adequate commercial space existing in this immediate area as it is. And I think that in reality, I think residential fits better for that portion of the site. So I do support the rezoning.

Councilman Dobregno.

Same as last meeting. I do think so I like to see the more business and commercial space over there. I think we have, yes. Do we have some vacancies? Yes. Do we have some older facilities over there? Yes. Is that causing some of these vacancies? Possibly. Is the possible development that we're looking at down the street, I think it would improve that and start bringing some people into this.

I think the strip mall that's there didn't know one of the service and spreading them perpendicular to the road. It didn't help anything. And we've had at the last our last planning zoning legislation meeting, we were had requests to for rezoning for two parcels at Westwood and Center Ridge from to go to general office, I believe, is the last ones that came through there. So I kinda like having a smaller commercial space through this area. It gives the rent should be a little lease should be a little bit less than what we're seeing up on Crocker.

So I'm I'm encouraging to stay with a commercial space on the on Center Ridge, but that's kinda where I'm at.

Thank you. I'm gonna weigh in as a city planner because that's what I do every day in my real job. There's a housing housing shortage nationally. You all know this. There's a housing shortage in Ohio. There's a housing shortage here in Westlake. I mean, the way this is laid out, so it's residential in the front, I like it because it's it's more continuous. So I could I could go in that neighborhood. I could walk up and down Center Ridge. I could go to the plazas.

I mean, I I have no problem with it being residential. I think it looks more contiguous or more continuity, I guess, is the word I'm looking for this way than having a road back and a bunch of houses. I mean, I think it's going to develop residential no matter what in the back. So I think those two parcels, I think it's important that you make it residential because I think gonna look better from the street, better from the residents. And I do think we're over commercialed on Center Ridge right now. We do have those vacancies and maybe these people on their feet walking around or biking around will drive more businesses to open up or stay open. So I'm I'm in agreement with the rezoning so do we have a vote or a motion or

strictly for the rezoning and then we'll discuss the plan separately yes okay

no you can't I'm sorry

Going backwards.

Hold

on. Yeah. Let's

okay. So the ordinance is strictly for the rezoning. Correct? Just to be clear.

Yes.

Alright. And you see the I I put up some draft findings. In fact, I just I I wanna know, do you do you agree with what you see on the screen there?

Let's see. Let's read through it real quick. Yeah. I'm good with it.

I am too.

Okay. Based upon the findings of fact, I move to recommend approval of ordinance twenty twenty six dash 31.

Second.

Move to roll call, please. Jones?

Yes.

Falcone? Yes. Del Reigno? No. Smith?

Yes. Motion carries. Thank you.

Alright.

Okay. Do we wanna discuss now? Yes. We're discuss the actual project plan before us.

Yes.

Okay. So who wants to start? Councilman Doregna?

Preliminary plan we have before us has commercial zoning on it.

Whether we receive We will end up I'm sorry for interrupting, but we'll table everything to, obviously, this plan so we can all be on the same plane. But I I want

Of course. Yeah.

I want input from the community as well and everything beyond what we have as well. So just wanna say that straight up forward.

Yeah. We we kinda did this as a fallback. If there was Yeah. So, like Speak

to your mic. Yep. We're gonna yeah. So we won't have any more comments. We'll table it. And then, unfortunately, the residents will have to come back, but it's all good conversation.

Unless they have anything else I could

I think

we're just gonna go ahead table first. Yeah.

Because we

had a

lot of comments on both.

Yeah. We submitted this as a fallback in case the rezoning didn't go through. But we're actually, it worked out great because we were able to get a lot of feedback from from all the residents so.

Are we able to I I know we're missing one of our members that will be here next in June but is there any comments that I could from now until the next meeting that I could satisfy the the planning commission here?

Yeah. So we're gonna wait till table it. Okay. So can I get a motion to table?

Yes.

Alright. I'm gonna steal it.

Oh, never mind. He's Alright. So we'll just say, motion to table the Cuyahoga Hardwood Subdivision preliminary plan to the 06/01/2026 meeting.

Second. Call, please. Smith? Yes. Del Reigno?

Yes.

Del Cone? Yes. Jones?

Yes.

Motion carries. Great. Thank you. Thank you. We hope to see you all back in June. Thank you.

Yes. This is the notice for the meeting for June 1.

Yep. Same time, 06:00. Thank you. Next item on the agenda is Stone Creek Village lot split.

Yes. 29251 Greystone Drive. So this divides the existing parcel into two parcels. Some of you were around I think back in 2017 when it was actually assembled into one parcel at the time so that the owner could further enjoy the property that they own in its full capacity. I think there might have been an idea they were going do a swimming pool on that right am I remembering correctly? You are. Right that's what I thought. So obviously they didn't go forward with that and so now they wanted to return it to what it was originally And there really are no there's no zoning problems. As you can see everything is okay with doing it because that subdivision was laid out perfectly at the time. So no issues at all.

And based on that it's just the standard condition about meeting the county and state requirements and and so on forth so forth.

Thank you. Name and address again for the record And do you have anything

to add?

Edward Pavosek, 1779 Granite Court.

Kevin Hoffman with Polaris Engineering surveying again, 34600 Chartrand Road, Wilby Hills, Ohio.

Good memory, mister Bedell. The it's getting the lot is being split back to the original subdivision that I brought in front of Westlake and I had approved, I got it was ten years ago, twelve years ago, something like that. And I live in this subdivision myself and we're building a home for child of the next door neighbor. So we're getting some young people. I mean, we have a lot of young people in our subdivision, but in their twenties and thirties. So that's pretty much it.

Great. Thank you. Would anyone from the audience like to speak on this one? Seeing none, missus Smith?

No issues with this. It makes it's perfectly straightforward. Thank you. Mister Jones?

No opposition.

Mister Dahl Regno, Councilman Dahl Regno?

I'm okay.

I'm okay with it because I like more houses.

Mhmm.

Thank you. Can we get a motion, please?

Yes. Based upon the findings of fact, I move to approve the Stone Creek Village lot split involving permanent parcel number 211Dash27Dash059 with our standard condition for Platts.

Second. Roll call please.

Belcone? Yes. Del Reigno? Yes. Smith? Yes. Jones?

Yes. Motion carries. Great. Thank you very much. Next item on the agenda is Rowing Gate conceptual development plan for six cluster homes.

Yes. 30395 Center Ridge Road. So back in March you did recommend approval of ordinance twenty twenty six dash 18 that rezone this 4.2 acre approximately 4.2 acre property to r one f cluster for this purpose of six unit cluster development that was adopted by Council on March 19. The rezoning did include a conceptual plan indicating the potential potential layout of this development and it's been refined since that time. It's still largely the same design.

There's a lot line between Units 4 that between units was it three and four or four and five whatever we'll see in a second. Previously it had a dog leg. It's now shown as a continuous angled line. They've added three parking spaces and a mailbox to the cul de sac island. The gate was removed. Rowan Gate doesn't have a gate anymore. Ground sign moved from the island to the mound next to the entrance from Center Ridge. Privacy vegetation added as green Unit 6 from Center Ridge Road. Buffering provisions are indicated where development abuts one family residential homes. Fence around storm water basin continues to be indicated.

We think it's four feet high ornamental. I'm not sure. Design guidelines are provided. I should mention this is a conceptual development plan and this will be followed by the final development plan. So that's just the way that our code works. So you're not going to necessarily have everything completely detailed out at this point. That's the whole purpose of a conceptual plan. So that there's still some wiggle room if there's any changes that need to be made. One of the changes that our fire department is wanting you to make is to eliminate the island at the entrance. We as planners love islands.

We love landscaping in the islands And they want everything to be 20 feet wide with no obstructions at all. So anyways that's what they have written. The future land use map, I've talked about this before. But it does identify this as single family residential low density and multifamily residential medium density. And they both support this request.

Let's see. Going through the box score, everything looks good. I guess we'll have to clarify with you about the building height. The design guidelines are a little bit unclear about that. They do say the heights are established by the ARB or the building envelope exhibit, which right now is blank. So we'll need some clarification because as clusters they are required to be two stories in height. There's no number assigned to that, only two stories.

Although So thought it was 30 feet?

No that was changed.

Okay.

It was at one time. Okay. It was no number and then 30 feet then it went back to your number again. So driveways we've talked about that already with the driveway situation. Rolled curbs for the curbing type, that's something engineering has already approved at other developments. So I don't think that's going be an issue with that. So we'll have to see buffering and tree preservation with the final development plan. Your ground sign, that's a very minor modification for that to be to exceed the four foot height limit. It's what you have is a conceptual ground sign. Very attractive looking.

I think that'll be fine. And the height of the actual text is approximately three feet above grade. So I think that's fine. The retention will require a modification to be in the front setback where it's located. And we hope, it's our understanding that's going to be a very attractive feature for this and not just sort of a trough that holds water that isn't attractive to look at.

We did our chairperson did receive a letter from the Cleveland Metroparks acknowledging that they do have you know a setback easement. And that the development plans for the Rowing Gate property adhere to the deed restrictions detailed above that are there are required. So Cleveland Metro Parks did not object to this as laid out. I will let you go through the different things except to say that I do have a concept plan from the ordinance if you want to take a look at that. And actually you can see I couldn't quite match them up.

I tried, spent a lot of time trying to match them up. But you can see there's not much change. It's between four and five where you had a dog leg in the lot line. And now that's things have shifted around a little bit better. It's actually a much better layout.

There we go. That's a little bit better in terms of how things are laying out. And we suspect things will be even more refined with the development plan. This is that, this is when I was taking a look at their earlier letter before I got the letter today. So that's the actual setback line that they have Cleveland Metroparks has that's actually different.

So with that said I don't have any conditions as part of this. Again it's a conceptual plan. A conceptual plans are we're still getting used to how this works. And actually I think I've got the wrong notion there because you actually approve conceptual plans. So it should I yeah I'm gonna fix that

sounds good

okay and I will put the document camera up while I do that

welcome again name and address

yes Edward Pavlisik 1779 Granite Court

Kevin Hoffman, Polaris Engineering Surveying 34600 Chardon Road, Willoughby Hills.

So this one I do have a name for, Roan Gate. It's one of my daughters. So we're not going to have a gate, but it's going to be called Roan Gate, unless we have other suggestions on it. This little bit changed from when we did the rezoning, the PZL applications. We do have a person for Lot 5 and neighbor here as well in the audience.

We're working with Young Design on that home right now. It will be over a $3,000,000 home. So we wanna make sure we have the lot coverage to cover that so these homes don't look like they're next to each other. So even though that this is a cluster community, we wanna maintain spacing and pretty much where our lots are gonna be at. So when we come back in here in final, we'll have that.

I will add, I would like to keep the island. I I know we have other other the even at Stone Creek Village where I live, we have the same island, and we have no problems getting our service people in. We put mounds of of big boulders and stuff in front of it just to keep people off of it. But in consideration, I would like to keep it. It would be a great place for the sign and for beautiful landscaping on that aspect.

Maybe I can make a compromise and do a little bit wider on the sides here, but I don't wanna go 20 feet on each side. It'll just look too much concrete, and it'll be a u-turn for everybody coming in and out of there. But, again, I'm open to suggestions on that. Buffering, absolutely. We're gonna keep majority of all the trees.

Kevin did the tree plan already and distinct trees in the middle, but everything on the edges. And we'll do whatever we need to do to fill in for people on Woodland Place or neighbors that are next door. I would 100% work with everybody on that and And my previous examples of that too, I can work with a planning department on it. Because this one's kind of unique. We don't want to take too much stuff down, but it's like you can't have a traditional mound and arbovitaes like we proposed on the last subdivision in that aspect.

The structures on this will be I I have an ARB that I submitted. The ARB, the heights of the homes will be in compliance, will be no more than 35 feet. No second story decks or anything like that. Not even off of master bedrooms. I don't want any of that. So I just wanna keep everything, all your entertainment on on the ground levels. Our homes how much do you want me to get into about how these homes are gonna look?

I'd be curious to see it.

Mean have time.

Yeah. You have you have don't have to

show I

think we did did we I

think there should have been There were some Yeah. Some colors and some stuff like that. I'm not sure if you have the

Maybe maybe I'm getting my jobs mixed up.

Yeah. We have a whole bunch of stuff. But I thought when I in the ARB, a couple of pages have the different designs. We have their everything is a modern version of

Yeah. I don't yeah. Don't I didn't that

There's like a 100 page architectural review board and Yeah. Yeah. Basically, I

don't have that all here.

Okay. Just to let you everything's gonna be a western, French country, modern farm. Everything's gonna be a modern version of what people want. Hiring community, probably the least home is gonna be 2,000,000 in here. Some of these homes that we have on the floor plans right now are what we have in Lake Forest on our subdivisions.

We've done these here in the Estates that we just finished up, that little infill project. All our siding is hardy, metal soffits. Our colors are going be black soffits, black roof. Our siding's going to be a dark carbon and peppercorn with some white highlights, so it could be, if you don't wanna use, you can use a board and bat siding for the fronts. The whole house is gonna have it.

Hardie board. The garage doors are black. Windows are gonna be the high end Pella windows, black. Gutters are gonna be black. Our doors are gonna be either a chestnut or a black on it, but very more of what's in demand for our our believe it or not, our our millennial generations are buying these homes now.

So I which I couldn't afford a home at that age, but they do have it. Yeah, it's a different world. But ultimately, they'll all be within the same colors, which I like as the builder is because the outside is done, and it helps me set pricing, helps me set the look of everything and that's something we can go more in detail. Our stone is actually, you see the stone color, so that's the stone we're using, it's a Casa De Sasa, white stone, a beautiful looking stone, So that will be integrated in all the homes. So even though the homes are going to be different, but they're all gonna have the same finishes in that aspect.

Great. Would anyone from the audience like to talk on this project or speak to this project? Okay. Seeing none, I'll start with Councilman DelMagnum.

Over two on names, The stone, are we going just the fronts? Are we doing

We Are

you leaving that out open?

I will typically with these type of homes like everything will have a wainscot around the house minimum. So we cover, we use poured foundation so that will all 100 be covered. The fronts, we usually go about between 5070% of the front. Okay. So this stone can actually highlight with a with like a creamish color plaster as well. So it's probably gonna have all three textures in front of it. So I I'm gonna be very this is probably gonna be my nicest this will be my nicest subdivision I ever built. So I'll be I'm gonna be extra anal about this one on everything. And the materials are all are extremely high on this one. So no vinyl siding. Everything is gonna be want it to look like Chandler did that Century Oaks. We go back there and and it still looks like it's thirty years ago and very high end high end stuff.

Good. Yeah. And then I think the so the the and was your last lot? Is that five?

Six. Yeah.

This is five.

That's five. Yes. What I can't read it. What's the what's the size of that lot?

One acre.

One acre? Okay. So that's an acre. Yeah. I think the straight diagonal line while it gives that a full acre I think that's the right move for that instead of that dog leg that we were seeing originally. And then the island, is that where we're putting is at the three three spots? Is that what we're seeing there?

Yeah. I think I think it's part of the cluster. There needed to be some guest spaces. So Yeah. We had three spots there. We road we actually think somewhere in the regulations that that it was needed to be 20 I think 24 feet something in one of the staff reports. So we actually went just went 25. So it is a typical will be a typical road so people so cars can park on the street as well.

Okay. Yeah.

That that benefits. So if we you know, they cluster the mailbox so in the cul de sac.

And then in in lieu of councilman Van Dyke not being present on this board anymore, still I wanna try and keep the trees. Right?

Absolutely. We're

gonna hold you guys to that pretty good.

Yeah. Did on the Sheet four. Saw it. It's probably hard to see on on this. But

I was able to see it originally. I think, yeah, I think you're at the on the right path there as long as we don't get too carried away. I think we're in good shape. No I think it's a I like that use of that space. I think it's the right thing for that area. So I'm okay.

Great. Thank you. Mister Jones?

Thank you. Concept wise I like it. I think this layout is it's a little bit more refined than what we saw initially and I think it works well. I probably the only thing I would maybe want to discuss more is how the what your thought is on how you would augment the existing buffering along the eastern property line backing up to Woodland Place. Is what's the thought there? I know you've got some trees that you're planning on preserving. Do you plan on adding more in there? Or what's

I'll add whatever we need. So if if I believe mister Smith who lives here, come out. What do you want? How much arbiviters you want in here? It's it's

Mhmm.

It's a it's a penny because I know this person wants privacy. So there's gonna be

a lot

there's gonna be a lot there.

So just based

on The realtor is actually Rob who rep who helped represent that so he can Okay. Yeah, testify to that too.

Is that

it's Okay.