Echo Hill rezoning request rejected again

Planning Commission, neighbors express opposition to RVG development

It was same result, different day for the Echo Hill Farm rezoning/housing development proposal at the Mentor Planning Commission meeting.

Commission members on Aug. 22 again unanimously voted down a request to rezone about 16 acres at 8180 and 8188 Garfield Road from R-4 Single Family Residential zoning to RVG Village Green.

After a public hearing, at which several neighbors spoke in opposition, commission members essentially said the revised plan for a 40-lot development hadn’t changed enough to change their vote.

The commission first rejected the request from Chuck and Scott Andrews in June over concerns including altering the neighborhood’s character and lack of greenspace amenities.

The Andrews withdrew the application and submitted the new plan, removing one home to comply with density limits, and adding a pavilion and grill in a corner of the property, plus a walking path to the spot.

Andrews also submitted a letter providing a market analysis of the neighborhood concluding that nearby R-4 homes averaged $450,000 in value and that the RVG homes would be comparable.

“We are requesting the rezoning to RVG in order to better meet the market demands and to be competitive in the marketplace,” said project representative George Smerigan of Tactical Planning LLC. “I work all over Northeast Ohio. I can tell you that the demand today is for larger homes on smaller lots. That is what homebuyers are demanding. The market for half-acre lots (is) very soft to the point of being virtually nonexistent. … My clients have experienced it just up the street where they began a half-acre subdivision in 2004 and are still selling lots.”

He said the quality of the homes would be comparable to the area and in no way detract from the neighborhood.

“Keep in mind, immediately across the street from us, there is a (planned unit) development (Newell Creek Preserve) with smaller lots, and we also have nonresidential development immediately across the street,” Smerigan said. “This is not an exclusively R-4 neighborhood. This is kind of a mixed street and we are being consistent with that mix.”

Neighbors disagreed. Robert Stratman of Belglo Lane said that when he purchased his property in 2016 the Andrews told him that the Echo Hill Farm land would be developed as R-4.

He disputed the property value average represented in the neighborhood by the developer and noted that five houses were built on his street in the last year.

“I think the bottom line is you can get 40 lots crammed in here and you’re going to make more money to the detriment of those of us who bought very expensive lots from the Andrews family as recently as 2016,” Stratman said. “If I wanted that kind of development, I could have bought a house in Newell Creek.”

Other neighbors said they didn’t want a common recreational area behind their homes because of potential noise and privacy issues, and the effect on their property values.

Smerigan was given the opportunity to respond.

“To claim what we are proposing to do is radically different in the neighborhood is clearly unfair and ridiculous,” he said.

“What we are talking about doing is building first-class, quality housing.”

Residents didn’t renew calls to save an 1860 home on the property, which was a sticking point for many at the June meeting.

Since then, Andrews was issued a permit for demolition of the structures on the property.

As of the afternoon of Aug. 26, the house was still standing.

The rezoning now goes to City Council for a public hearing and vote. It will require six of seven Council members to overturn a negative recommendation from the commission.

The commission provided feedback on an informal request for the property in February.

NEWS-HERALD FILE A formal proposal to rezone this Garfield Road property in Mentor for a housing development was rejected by the city Planning Commission.