Rezoning request is for Mentor Heights

A developer proposing housing on Mentor nursery land is tweaking his plan in time for a formal review before the city Planning Commission.

Pro-Built Homes President George Davis removed two homes from the 49-home Mentor Heights design presented Nov. 30 at an informal hearing on rezoning the land from R-4 Single Family Residential to Residential Village Green.

The change was made to meet RVG requirements, which restrict the maximum density to 2.5 units per acre, meaning 47 units on the 19.09-acre site. Four Chillicothe Road properties, including Mentor Heights Nursery, are part of the proposal on the commission’s Dec. 21 agenda.

Davis said the 49-sublot design was merely a miscalculation.

Commission member Nick Valeri said the

project looked good, but he sought to reduce the number of homes further.

“I’d like to see the common area increase,” Valeri said. “Do you need all 47? Can you get away with 45 or 43?”

Davis said, “Unfortunately, with the requirements of the seller and also with market pressures, it would be really difficult to make this project work without the full 47 lots.”

Per city code, village green projects must have recreation, park and common open space equaling at least 15 percent of the total development area, excluding streets. The initial plan included about 3 acres of open space. That has increased with the removal of the two homes.

“I’m working with the property owner, Fred Zuch, who is nearing retirement age, and part of his estate planning is to develop the property,” said Davis, of Concord Township. “I’m excited about this project. So many times today the projects of this size tend to go to a national builder, and you end up with cookie-cutter

houses one after another, usually a little bit lower quality. And in this case, we would be developing and building all the homes in there. And we would be custom building highquality homes that I think would truly benefit the city of Mentor. It would provide a lot of options.

“It would provide moveup housing for a lot of existing residents of Mentor and also — due to the fact that we’re going to build ranches, first-floor masters, as well as colonials — it would provide a really good option for residents of Mentor as they’re aging to get into single-floor living in a quality-built home.”

Pro-Built enlisted the help of Rick Harrison, a nationally known land planner, who also designed Sommers Real Estate Group’s Lakeshore Highlands project.

Commission Chairman William Snow asked what precludes the property from being developed under the existing R-4 zoning.

Davis said the market trend is toward smaller lot sizes.

“I would cite Belgio Lane off of Garfield (Road),” he said. “That development was put in, what, 12 years ago, and I think still at least 35 percent of the lots are available. The market for half-acre lots is just not as strong these days. Most people would prefer to have a smaller lot size and then have a true sense of community.”

Snow responded, “That’s a substantial change, so we need to ask the question why can’t it be developed as the R-4, and your answer was a good answer.”

Davis added that curved roads and clustering homes provides visual interest and results in about 11 percent less roadway to maintain.

Some commission members questioned a walking path behind homes and the presence of a working gas well.

“It looked like a big honkin’ thing in the middle of your plan, and I’d like to see it softened more with landscaping, trees, berm, because that’s not in the spirit of your design to have that thing in the middle there,” Geoffrey Varga said.

Davis said the well productivity is tapering off. He indicated that it would be capped when it concludes operation, likely within a few years.

The developer plans to demolish four homes onsite, at 7343, 7391, 7399 and 7411 Chillicothe Road. The administration is requesting a feasibility study as to retaining the 1835 home at 7343 Chillicothe. The other homes date to the 1940s and ’50s. City planners also would like to keep some “unique tree stands.”

If approved, the Mentor Heights development would feature homes in the $350,000 to $450,000 range. Davis said the project is probably at least a year away from starting.