BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- The city will likely ask voters in November to allow retail businesses along Ohio 82, and five new homes along Arlington Street to the south, on the site of the former Central Elementary School, just west of Brecksville Road.
The city might also allow apartments on the Central school site, but only on a case-by-case basis and only on the second or higher floor of a retail building.
To make all this happen, voters would have to rezone the Central school site, which measures slightly more than 3.5 acres. It’s still uncertain whether the school building will be preserved and repurposed as part of the project or torn down.
The rezoning, which the Planning Commission has recommended, would appear on the November ballot if City Council places it there. Council left the rezoning on first reading May 16.
The city obtained the Central property and a house next door, plus 10.5 acres on Stadium Drive, from the Brecksville-Broadview Heights City School District in exchange for 25 acres on the municipally owned Blossom Hill property on Oakes Road.
Both parties signed the land-swap agreement in 2018. The district has since built a new elementary school on the Blossom Hill land.
City officials announced in 2019 that they would choose and work with a developer to convert the 106-year-old Central school into condominiums, another type of housing or a mixed-use site that might include condominiums or apartments above retail stores or offices.
The city entertained two competing plans -- one by DiGeronimo Development LLC, the Independence firm that is developing Valor Acres at Brecksville and Miller roads; another by United Community Developers in Brecksville -- but rejected both of them in September 2021.
Brecksville officials decided to start over after residents living in the historic Old Town district, which includes Central school, expressed opposition to the two plans. Since then, no new plans have been brought forward.
Nuts & bolts
The Central school site is off the south side of Ohio 82, next to and west of Brecksville United Church of Christ and across from the Brecksville Public Square gazebo. The parcel extends south to Arlington, an Old Town residential street that runs parallel to Ohio 82.
The site is zoned a community facility district, where schools, religious institutions, public parks, swimming pools, stables, libraries, museums, indoor recreation centers, private clubs, police and fire stations, childcare businesses, golf courses, cemeteries, athletic fields, picnic areas and hospitals are permitted.
The Planning Commission has proposed rezoning most of the Central school parcel into a local business district, where retail stores selling food, beverages, pharmaceuticals, books, gifts, hardware, appliances, electronics, clothes, flowers, sporting goods, musical instruments and other items would be permitted.
Local business zoning also allows laundromats, beauty and barber shops, tailors, automobile service stations, and photographic and art studios.
The city would allow apartments on the upper floors of retail buildings, but only with special permission from the Planning Commission. Freestanding apartment buildings would be prohibited.
The rezoning to local business would also include part of a city-owned residential lot, containing a historic home known as the Comstock house, next to and west of the school building. The lot, on Highland Drive, measures close to 1 acre.
Meanwhile, the southern portion of the Central school site along Arlington would become an R-8A residential district where single-family, detached homes are permitted.
Monica Bartkiewicz, the city’s director of planning and community development, said the R-8A section would have enough room for five new houses on Arlington. A landscape buffer would separate the local business and residential sections of the rezoned property.
Initially, the city considered allowing freestanding apartments in the local business section -- again, only on a case-by-case basis -- but feared residents would vote down the entire rezoning plan if freestanding apartments were allowed.
The commission also considered not allowing apartments under any circumstances.
Earlier this month, Commissioner Ron Payto, referring to apartments, said, “It’s kind of a four-letter word out in the community.”
Commissioner Lawry Kardos said voters might worry that apartments would lead to more children at the newly opened Brecksville Elementary School on Blossom Hill.
“If we open it up where the whole thing could be apartments, there could be some backlash because of the overcrowded mess at the elementary school,” Kardos said.
“Are people going to be voting based on their thoughts about the school district and being able to accept new students in the school?”
Public hearings
The city hosted public hearings on the proposed rezoning April 6 and April 20.
According to minutes of those hearings, Edmund Arnold, of Daisy Avenue, asked for assurance that the city would not tear down existing homes in Old Town to build a new multifamily building.
Joe DiVincenzo, of Old Highland Drive, said he would oppose access to the new development from his street.
Mark Weigand of Daisy asked if the city had considered tearing down the school and rezoning the entire Central parcel to residential.
Michael Satink, a Cedar Street resident, said he was against any development that would increase traffic on Old Town streets.
Regarding these concerns from residents, Mayor Jerry Hruby confirmed that any new apartments, if approved by the commission, would be built only on the Central school site.
City Engineer Gerald Wise said a developer would have the right to access the site from Ohio 82 but added that without a proposed plan, it was too early to tell where the entrance would be located.
Hruby added, however, that access from Old Highland might be the only safe way into the property. A traffic study would be commissioned only after the development is designed.
Hruby said the all-residential option for the Central school site was rejected because it would add too many living units to the downtown population.
Councilman Brian Stucky, a commission member, said the commission has focused on preserving the Old Town neighborhood.
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