Council votes to rezone for V.A. clinic

Lorain is one step closer to welcoming back a U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs Clinic that left the city in 2016.

In a special call of Council on July 30, Lorain City Council voted unanimously to rezone parcels from R-1 residential to B-1A Office Business District totaling 9.7 acres at 3120 Kolbe Road that could be the home of a new permanent VA clinic location.

The vote clears another hurdle for the project which would be located across from the Mercy Health Medical Center.

“Right now we wait. This was a key part of the application as the developer stated last meeting (July 23) and we wanted to get it done as soon as possible,” Mayor Chase Ritenauer said. “So at this point I think we’ve provided everything they’ve asked from us.

“If there is another task perhaps we will be back here sometime in August instead of recess. But for right now that is what they needed and we were able to accomplish that tonight,” the mayor added.

The Lorain County Community Based Outpatient Clinic, presently located at 5255 N. Abbe Road in Sheffield Village, is in the third year of a fiveyear lease as a temporary location with the VA and is intending to stay there until the end of term, according to Danielle Krakora, communications officer for the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center in a July 25 letter.

The VA has yet to announce its plans for the next permanent site and is working to identify the location within the area of delineation established through research identified as Lake Erie, east to Case Road, south to U.S. Route 20 and state Route 10 and west to state Route 58, established through research, the letter said.

Warrensville Heights-based developer Michael Downing presented the proposal at a July 23 public hearing. The proposed 34,000-square foot location would return the VA to Lorain which left the St. Joseph Community Center at 205 W. 20th St. in 2016.

If the VA was to return, construction could begin in 2019 and it could be operating by 2020.