K-8 charter school is proposed for office building in Westerville
A proposal to convert a two-story office building into a K-8 charter school will be the subject of a public hearing Wednesday evening before the Westerville Planning Commission.
The site is located in a planned industrial district zoning, which allows elementary and secondary schools as conditional uses with permit approval from the Westerville Planning Commission. The commission will hold a public hearing on the school proposal at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Westerville City Council Chambers at 21 S. State St.
Architect Jeffrey L. Glavan of the Glavan Group in Columbus submitted the application for a conditional use permit to locate the charter school in the 33,344-square-foot office building on a 2.296-acre site at 735 Charter Place near the intersection of West Schrock and Cooper roads. The building, owned by Colony Investments Ltd., is part of an office building complex and was originally occupied by the American Ceramic Society, then later by other office tenants.
Who will operate the charter school is not identified in documents submitted to Westerville seeking required conditional use approval for conversion of the building, and Glavan did not immediately return an email left by The Dispatch on Tuesday.
The proposed school would serve a maximum 350 students and have 29 total employees. An estimated 90% of the students would be bused to the site by Columbus and Westerville school districts, according to Glavan’s application, with the remainder picked up and dropped off by vehicle.
No changes are proposed to the physical exterior of the existing building, though signage changes are anticipated and the application proposes the addition of playground equipment on the west side of the building’s exterior within the 25-foot side yard setback.
The applicant also is in discussion with a private Christian school and church next door, which is located
across the municipal boundary line from Westerville in Columbus, for a possible shared-use agreement for the fields on that school’s property, Westerville senior planner Bassem Bitar told The Dispatch.
The proposed charter school proposes to install aluminum fencing with a wrought iron-style finish along a large wooded ravine on the south side of the property for safety purposes, and potentially along the west property line depending on whether the applicant can reach an agreement with the Christian school on a shared-use agreement.
Interior changes to the building that would be required as part of the conversion to a school will require separate building permit approval from the city’s building division.
While they would like to see the building remain as part of the office/employment center use intended for the site, the Westerville planning and development staff review noted that the proposed school is adjacent to similar school uses on the other side of the city limits and would not necessarily be at odds with its surroundings.
The Westerville planning staff’s major concern about the change of use is the traffic flow of buses and vehicles in and out of the property near the busy
West Schrock and Cooper roads intersection. The planning staff is recommending the city Planning Commission approve the application with several conditions.
Among them:
● Landscape improvements satisfactory to planning staff be made to restore the original landscaping around the building and that site conditions be brought up to code.
● Student enrollment be limited to the proposed 350 students, with any increase requiring further conditional use permit review and approval by the city Planning Commission.
● Any change in bus ridership ratio that increases the number of trips beyond 100 vehicle trips per peak hour be subject to a traffic impact study and possible further conditional use permit review and approval.
● The planned bus traffic circulation be coordinated to the satisfaction of the city engineer with the goal of limiting left turns by buses and traffic from the school.
● The applicant make a “good faith effort” to secure easement agreements to construct a driveway connection from the proposed school building to Cooper Road to improve traffic flow to the school.