RockCity Sports nets permit for facility

Mentor volleyball site also to offer pickleball

Last month, it seemed that Dan Bezik of RockCity Sports had a tall order to fill to get his plan approved for an indoor sports facility in Mentor.

However, he and his team were able to surmount the hurdles in time for this month’s Planning Commission review.

The commission in July tabled the business’s request for a conditional-use permit to allow a recreational use at 8001 Moving Way in the M-2 Heavy Manufacturing District after concerns arose about adequate parking, emergency access and the need for a firewall to separate uses in the building.

The sports facility is to be housed in 24,000 square feet at the rear of the 143,368-squarefoot Moving Solutions site at the end of Justin Way.

Bezik proposes to provide recreation and training via four volleyball courts and three pickleball courts. The facility is primarily to be used to conduct a Junior Olympic volleyball club at night and on weekends.

Since the last meeting, solutions were worked out to the satisfaction of the commission, which unanimously granted the permit on Aug. 20.

“Thanks for working with the administration on this,” Commission member Brian Cook told Bezik. “I have kids and I think it’s important to have youth sports and create a team atmosphere, and I’m glad you worked with the administration to come back. I know we were a little upset last time and I just want to take a minute to thank you for choosing Mentor, and I wish you the best of luck.”

Bezik expressed gratitude to city officials as well.

The city administration noted that the commission can reduce the required amount of parking based upon evidence provided by the applicant from an acceptable industry publication or by a parking generation study prepared by a qualified professional that documents the parking requirements for said land use.

The applicant provided documentation that an additional 51 parking spaces can be striped within an existing lot near the unit. It is currently being used for storing

Mentor Nissan inventory.

Moving Solutions, a moving and storage company, requires use of the existing parking spaces — totaling 91 — during the day, while the volleyball courts will be in use at night, offsetting the demand for spaces at one time, says a city staff report to the commission. In addition, there are 147 spaces designated as landbanked on the site.

The applicant indicated that the pickleball and volleyball courts will be used at separate times during the day. It is expected that the pickleball courts would have a maximum of 24 players in the facility at one time. When teams are using the volleyball courts, most of the players will be dropped off and picked up for practices. The applicant said they are not conducting any tournaments at the facility.

“The administration believes there is sufficient area that could be converted to parking, if needed,” the report says. “The proposed parking, as outlined above, should be satisfactory to meet the parking space needs of both uses within the building.”

RockCity is required to provide an updated parking plan prepared to scale and indicating the location of all the spaces as part of its next submission.

Another issue addressed was maintenance of the fire lane behind the building. The property owner and applicant have indicated that the fire lane will be maintained as required by the city. The Fire Department is recommending that the fire lane be made immediately accessible to allow safe, unobstructed travel by fire vehicles weighing up to 70,000 pounds and a minimum lane width of 20 feet.

The administration included a condition stating that the Fire Department will need to approve the maintenance/improvements made to the lane prior to temporary or final occupancy being granted.

Regarding the shared use of the building, the applicant provided a report prepared by C.J Heintz and Associates, LLC that recommends categorizing the existing warehouse space as an S-2 use (low-risk storage), which does not have a separation requirement from another use when the building is equipped with an automatic sprinkler system. Currently, the space falls under an S-1 use group (moderatehazard storage) under the Ohio Building Code.

“By changing the existing warehouse to the S-2 use group, the proposed RockCity Sports can co-exist without the need to construct a firewall between the uses,” the staff report says. “Mentor’s Chief Building Official has reviewed this proposal and has no objection to this approach.”

The owner of the building agreed to make the change as well.

In the future, the facility may offer yoga, kickboxing, karate, self-defense and personal training. Summer day camps for youth may include volleyball, kickball, baseball and other sports or games.

Bezik said he hopes to open by early October.