City begins zoning process for business

Proposed center would sit on 119 acres west of Baumhart Road at Route 2

A new distribution center would add buildings and jobs to about 119 acres at the interchange of Baumhart Road and Ohio Route 2, according to plans on file in Vermilion.

The Vermilion City Planning Commission has recommended rezoning for four parcels that could become a new distribution hub.

Company not revealed

The end user has not been disclosed, but the Sterling Group II LLC and Hillwood — A Perot Company have requested the rezoning for the land.

An exact site plan is not final.

But test fit concept plans show a warehouse up to 1.4 million square feet in size with 1,431 employee parking spaces and 716 trailer parking spaces and 171 loading docks, or three buildings each 335,000 square feet in size, with 1,096 worker parking spots, space for 543 trailers and 228 loading docks.

Vermilion City Council will begin considering the zoning change in legislation for Council’s Sept. 13 meeting.

Council will have three readings of the ordinance and a public hearing on the zoning change Oct. 25.

“They’re very substantial and very serious, and they have that 119 acres under contract,” said Mayor Jim Forthofer.

Current landowner

The land currently is owned by McShea LLC, a company of Norwalk contractor Mark Haynes Construction Inc.

Mike Petrigan of CBRE matched the site with the developers, Forthofer said.

The city would change zoning from B-3 business and I-1 light industrial, to I-2 heavy industrial, he said.

The goal is not to place heavy industry there, but the I-2 zoning allows buildings to be up to 65 feet in height.

“It’s been explained to me that new logistics handling technology goes up instead of out, so this is still intended to be a warehouse/distribution center, not heavy industry, just they need height, which is why they’re going for I-2,” the mayor said.

Location

The location is on the east side of Vermilion, on the Lorain County side of the city and close to the city boundaries with Lorain city and Brownhelm Township.

The land stretches from Baumhart Road west to Claus Road.

The Vermilion Planning Commission meeting of Sept. 1 prompted concerns from neighbors with questions about truck traffic, noise and exhaust.

Local opinion

Area residents Philip Laurien, Tom Palmer, Marilyn Brill, Nick Demos, Bob Leimbach and Dan Kaighin all spoke about the proposal. They generally supported the city making the zoning change conditional on the land sale for that project, so land would revert to its original zoning if the distribution center did not go forward.

Manny Torgow, vice president of Sterling Group and Jordan Bookstaff, engineering manager of midwest for Hillwood, said they intended to work with the neighbors to create a buffer around the distribution center.

Logistics

A distribution center would benefit from the infrastructure added to that area for the former Ford Motor Co.

That includes the Route 2 highway exit, the Ohio Turnpike to the south and railroad access, Forthofer said.

The site is a logical one and away from Vermilion’s downtown, he added.

If an end user needs additional water lines, sanitary sewers or road improvements, the city administration is committed to working with a business to provide whatever is necessary, Forthofer said.

Mayor says

“I feel this is good for Vermilion, and it’s worth 100 percent of my effort,” he said.

An exact construction schedule was not available yet, but the companies have created large structures in a matter of months, Forthofer said, citing their online resources.

“These people have been there, done that, and that’s why I feel so comfortable working with them,” Forthofer said.

The companies are substantial and showing interest in Vermilion, so the city staff will go all out to respond to what they need, the mayor said.

The project is not guaranteed, Forthofer said.

But, he used a baseball analogy to explain why the administration is pursuing the development.

“Things can fall through,” he said. “I don’t want to get people all wound up and say, oh, this is going to happen.

“This is something we’re working on. There’s a ways to go and things aren’t guaranteed.

“But I read in the analogy, you’re invited to play in the World Series. What are you going to say, no, because you might lose? No, you’re just going to go forward.”