Rezoning, housing plan for Center Street land faces challenges

Mentor Planning Commission got a little history lesson about a prominent corner of the city when reviewing an informal rezoning request recently.

At the last commission meeting, Assistant Law Director Joseph Szeman took time to explain the back story to the Old Village zoning district created for the northwest corner of the Route 20/ Route 615 intersection.

The latest plan for the last remaining vacant land on the site along Route 615 — initially part

of a larger mixed-use development proposal — involves constructing three, three-story condominium buildings totaling 16 units around a courtyard.

Jeff Caimi of Dara Properties LLC seeks to change the Old Village District-Residential/Commercial zoning to Old Village District-Residential to allow his Center Street Townhomes project. That is because of a successful 2014 ballot issue that tied previous developer Bo Knez’s plans to the parcel.

The Knez plan called for eight, four-story duplex structures with four commercial units and 24 residential units on about 3 acres between the old Center Street School and ErieBank center.

Since then, ProBuilt Homes developed the back portion of the property with single-family houses, leaving little more than an acre. Caimi noted that his plan is lower density and provides more greenspace.

“The appearance of it is in line with the historic

theme of that area,” he said. “It probably would be very similar to the bank building to the north of it.”

However, Szeman made it clear that it’s not quite as simple as a rezoning, mostly because the Old Village District requires a commercial component.

“Old Village is not primarily a residential classification,” he said, “more being driven (by) historic preservation — Center Street School being the prime example.”

In addition, pairing residential with commercial was intended to help spur some higher-quality businesses, “in an area that, frankly, hadn’t seen any redevelopment for quite some time,” he said.

Another consideration was whether traffic near the intersection would make the development less marketable as homes.

“That actually is exactly what happened,” Szeman said. “And so the units that were in the old Center Street building that were proposed originally for residential were converted to commercial use. …

“And so what we’re looking for in a formal proposal here is that ‘What if.’ What

if, in fact, there’s an issue and there’s difficulty with the marketability, the livability of the units immediately adjacent to 615? How could they be readily adapted to an office use, for example.”

Caimi said he was willing to consider that, though he initially had concerns that a commercial use might not be as successful, based on the previous development model’s occupancy rate in another location. Lack of parking is another issue.

“I am the landlord of Salon Lofts and the foot doctor, and parking is very tight,” he said.

Other recommendations for the formal rezoning submission include creating uniformity of architecture on all sides of the buildings and adding some landscaping.

“Again, it may be a great project, but there needs to be some harmonizing with the Old Village regulations,” Szeman said.

No vote is taken on informal proposals. Along with a formal review by the commission, the project will require a City Council vote to place it on the ballot. The deadline for issues for the Nov. 6 ballot is Aug. 8.