Traffic leads commission to nix school proposal
A proposal to convert a two-story office building into a K-8 charter school has been rejected by a majority of the Westrerville Planning Commission, primarily over traffic concerns.
Architect Jeffrey L. Glavan of the Glavan Group in Columbus had asked the planning commission for a conditional use permit to locate the charter school in the 33,344-square-foot building on a 2.296-acre site at 735 Charter Place near the busy intersection of West Schrock and Cooper roads.
The building, owned by Colony Investments Ltd. and located near another office building, is located in a planned industrial district zoning, which allows elementary and secondary schools as conditional uses with permit approval from the planning commission.
But the planning commission rejected the conditional use request 5-2 at a meeting Wednesday, with some board members citing concerns about potential traffic flow problems.
Glavan did not identify who would be operating the school, but indicated in the application that 90% of the planned student body of up to 350 in K-8 would be bused by Columbus and Westerville city school districts. The remainder of the students would be dropped off and picked up. In addition, the school’s application anticipated 29 employees working there with a 106-space parking lot available.
City planners who reviewed the charter school application had recommended approval of the conditional use permit, but with several conditions — many of which centered around traffic flow impact.
A traffic impact study had not been conducted by the applicant based on their estimated 82 vehicle trips per peak hour. City planners had recommended appoval of the school with a condition that any change in bus ridership ratio that increases the number of trips beyond 100 vehicle trips per peak hour be subject to a traffic impact study as well as possible further conditional use permit review and approval by the planning commission.
City planners also recommended that the planning commission approve the conditional use, student enrollment be limited to the 350 students proposed with any increase requiring further conditional use permit review and approval by the commission.
Planned bus traffic circulation would also have to be coordinated to the satisfaction of the city engineer with the goal of limiting left turns by buses and other vehicles entering and exiting the Ceramic Place roadway to the school off West Schrock Road. City planners wanted the applicant to make “a good faith effort” to obtain easement agreements from neighboring property owners to construct a driveway connection from the proposed school to Cooper Road to improve traffic flow to the property.
Without the easements and the connector driveway, some planning commission members and three people representing another office building nearby expressed concerns about the traffic problems that would be created by a school with only one entrance/exit drive connecting to West Schrock Road just south of its busy intersection with Cooper Road.