The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
Vision not yet complete
Plans for Center Street land in Mentor continue to evolve
A city center in Mentor’s Old Village District remains elusive, at least for now.
Multiple attempts at creating a “downtown” area at the site have come and gone during the last decade and a half.
The latest proposal for vacant lot south of the ErieBank plaza on Route 615 doesn’t match what has long been envisioned by city officials or what voters approved.
Derek Hansen, owner/operator of Aria Senior Living, seeks to build a 7,200-square-foot assisted-living facility in a modern farmhouse style on the site, which is roughly an acre.
The two-story, 26-bed home would accommodate seniors with disabilities.
“It will be beautiful,” said Hansen, who recently opened Cedar Living in Mayfield Heights. He added that research indicates smaller scale, less institutional structures have been shown to improve the experience for residents and staff alike.
An informal request to rezone the land from Old Village to B-2, General Business for the facility was reviewed by the Planning Commission April 16.
While the $3 million project would be possible under the current zoning with a conditionaluse permit, it would need to go to the electorate because it is a departure from a 2014 voter-approved plan for the site.
“That process takes much more time than most developers are willing to invest and is a big risk,” Mentor Planning Director Kathy Mitchell said.
Bruce Rinker, land use counsel for Hansen, suggested a potential “sunset” provision, reverting the property to Old Village zoning should the proposal not go forward within an agreedupon timeframe.
However, commission members expressed discomfort about diverting from the old plan.
“For me, it’s hard to get over the fact that it was rezoned by the voters to OV to have a residential-commercial component, and it’s an end-run around getting the property to B-2, no matter what the project, no matter how beautiful,” commission member Brian Cook said.
Failure to launch
The 2014 plan, known as Center Street Square, provided for 24 residential units and eight commercial units within 16 townhome-style buildings.
In 2018, the commission approved an amendment to the development plan and current property owner Jeff Caimi’s preliminary site plan for the construction of 17 townhomes and a 2,000-square-foot commercial space.
The project was anticipated to attract the coveted Millennial population gravitating toward “walkable” communities with amenities nearby.
“My concern is this is a specific piece of property that has expectations about it as part of an Old Village city center, and I don’t think anything about the (assisted-living) project addresses that expectation,” commission member Geoffrey Varga said.
City Law Director Joseph Szeman recommended the commission get more information from Caimi as to why his plan isn’t moving forward.
“Maybe that will inform the commission and, ultimately, City Council with respect to the viability of the Old Village classification and the approved development plan, and whether or not rezoning this to something other than OV would be appropriate,” Szeman said.
Caimi spoke in support of the Aria proposal in his response.
“Aesthetically it’s an improvement over, from my perspective, what I was working towards, which really just at the end of the day didn’t pencil out, and I was having difficulty getting that off the ground,” he said.
Changing hands
Plans for the property date to at least 2006, when voters approved rezoning for Phase 1 of a mixed-use development proposed by Rick Osborne Jr.
Rezoning for Phase 2 — involving 40 townhomes on about 5 acres — was denied by voters in 2008. The economic downturn that year caused Osborne to pursue a more modest project.
Six years later, developer Bo Knez succeeded at rezoning the land for Center Street Square, but he bowed out when the property went through foreclosure.
Lake National Bank — acquired by ErieBank in 2017 — purchased the property at sheriff’s sale in 2015.
Should Aria submit a formal rezoning request to B-2, the commission would make a recommendation to City Council, which would have final say on the change.
Hansen said he is contemplating a ballot issue.
“We will customize the Cedar Living at Mentor to fit into the neighborhood,” he said.
The purchase is contingent on the zoning change.