PERRYSBURG — A proposal to allow a land-use variance of the zoning for sections of Harbor Town South from commercial/industrial to multi-family use was voted down at a public hearing of city council’s Architectural Review Committee on Dec. 20.
The architectural committee’s one task was to determine if the proposed plans to build an over-50 senior community was a substantial change to the zoning regulations.
The owners and developers had submitted a request for a modification of the 2010 Master Plan to allow the change, which originally classified the area as commercial/industrial property. The Harbor Town property is located south of the city off Ohio 25 at Harbor Town Boulevard.
The proposed change would allow the investors to build a 140-unit set of rental buildings in three sections 5 and 6 and part of 3 called Harbor Town Place. The current zoning allows a multi-floor 180 apartment building in section 6 only, as well as building storage units.
Those there to urge the approval of the change were Claude’s restaurant owner Claude Harmon, Ridgestone general contractor Brian Gruber, McCarthy Builders owner Brian McCarthy, and attorney Jerry Parker.
McCarthy told the committee that being allowed to build these over-50 senior apartments would allow retiring Perrysburg residents to be able to stay in the city after they sold their homes. He said right now they could build a multi-story rental, but he wanted to create good one-story housing that he would want his grandmother to have, with the garage right next to her apartment.
Committee member Jan Materni agreed that housing was needed in the city, but the plans to build the two bedroom two bath units, which they described as “high end units,” would not meet the need for affordable housing, noting that the developers had expected those qualified to rent the units would have a yearly income of $126,000. McCarthy had said this development would not be subsidized by a federal program.
One area of contention was what the developers called changes in overall zoning regulations since they bought the property in 2007. For example, the use of property to build multi-family housing was taken out in 2013 although the provision of Urban Village planning remained in the zoning codes.
However, when the committee reconvened from conferring about their decision, Chairman Cory Kuhlman said they had turned down the variance request, saying their only goal that night was to decide if the proposal represented a significant change in zoning regulations, which they felt it did.
Kulman said that in the future, if the matter came before council, he promised he would look at the project with an open mind, but at this point, the substantial change was upheld as a reason to not change zoning requirements.
Gruber said after the meeting they were unsure what their plans were on pursuing zoning changes.
