Mercy zoning remains at odds

Planning Commission recommends change, residents renew opposition

The next round of deliberations has started as Lorain city leaders, Mercy Health and residents consider a new medical office building on the west side.

On Jan. 3, the Lorain City Planning Commission voted to recommend a zoning change for a new medical office building planned by Mercy Health on 8.12 acres on Oak Point Road near Park Square Drive.

The Planning Commission vote was the same as that of fall 2017 – and so was resident opposition as neighbors argued the new building is not a good fit for their neighborhood.

Property owner Sandra Bitar is seeking to change the zoning from R1-A Residential to B1-A Office Business District.

Mayor Chase Ritenauer asked Chief Building Official Richard Klinar to review the permissible uses for land zoned B1-A Office Business District, which is more restrictive for commercial development than Lorain’s B-1 or B-2 zoning.

“We think that zoning will best meet both Mercy’s needs to put a medical office building on that site as well as best possible to protect the interests of the local community there in that area,” said Eli White, vice president of ambulatory services for Mercy Health.

White presented details with Greg Deitz,

project manager for STAR Design-Build Contractors of Amherst, and Bryant Bitar.

The plans for the building are unchanged from those discussed last year, Dietz said.

The 30,000-squarefoot, single-story building would be about 16 feet high and up to 25 feet high at the corners, he said.

Parking would be west of the building, or behind the building as seen from Oak Point Road, to block view of the parking lot for neighbors, Deitz said.

There would be landscaping mounds and a retention pond along Oak Point Road. The lot’s main access would be a driveway across from South Mayflower Drive.

Deitz noted the city’s Design Review Board has approved the look of the structure, pending approval of the zoning change.

Preliminary studies found the lot did not have any wetlands on it.

A traffic engineering firm performed a traffic impact analysis based on the use of the building and found no further traffic studies would be needed due to trips generated because of the new building.

Operations would be about 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., with occasional business as late as 8 p.m. because the new office would have an urgent care clinic, White said.

The building location is important because it is near state Route 2 and when looking at other Mercy offices in Amherst and Lorain, 82 percent of patients come from Lorain, Amherst or communities to the west, he said.

The details were convincing for the planning board.

Ritenauer, Safety-Service Director Dan Given and members Ken Kramer and Jeff Zellers voted 4-0 to recommend the change, which must be approved by Lorain City Council.

City residents Denver Casto and John Franko of Jaeger Road, and Jacob Walter and Donald Woltman of Oak Point Road, all took turns speaking against the location.

“I can’t really say anything I haven’t said time and time before: This is going to screw up our neighborhood,” Walter said. “People have lives and families and homes there. It’s not the place for this medical center.”

Living across the street from the proposed center, Walter said the project will have a significant impact on him and his family.

Woltman said he does not oppose Mercy Health and he hopes they remain in Lorain forever.

But the hospital and city should respect the land zoned around Oak Point Road, he said.

“It was zoned residential,” Woltman said. “That’s what we want. We want that respected.”

Franko questioned the location, while Casto said a traffic study for the project “is a total farce.”

The city of Lorain acknowledged traffic already is a problem on Oak Point Road, Casto said.

He noted Lorain City Council in November 2017, approved a resolution of cooperation to work with Amherst “to solve a mutual traffic and congestion problem” at Oak Point Road and Cooper Foster Park Road.

Speaking on behalf of residents, attorney Gerald Phillips of Avon Lake cited several reasons to oppose the zoning change.

The land is surrounded by residential properties, making it an example of spot zoning, said Phillips who gave the Planning Commission an eight-page memo with supporting documents to explain the opposition.

The medical office building would go on about eight acres, fronting on Oak Point Road, of an 18.48acre parcel owned by the Bitar family, Phillips said.

The family also owns a 54.92-acre parcel north of that land, so Phillips argued the current zoning request opens the door to 73 acres of commercial development or multi-family housing off Oak Point Road.

“They don’t listen to anything,” Phillips said. “Nothing has changed. It’s a square peg in a round hole.”