08/19/1997 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 8/19/97 b. Ordinance 97-69, dealing the annexation of property belonging to Christ the King Church. The committee recommended approval. AUDIENCE PARTICIPATION Angelo Skoulis, 24732 Mitchell Drive, spoke as president of the Parkwest Homeowners Association and a representative of C.A.R.S., Citizens Against Retail Saturation. C.A.R.S. is an organization that is opposed to any rezoning of additional land for retail use. The members are against passage of Ordinance 97-76 which would rezone Parcel E. Mr. Skoulis wished to remind Council of some of the reasons that he has previously given for opposing this issue: • This is not the developer's first attempt to rezone the land--it is now his sixth attempt. One of the attempts was successful when the residents sat down with Biskind Development for seven months to negotiate an agreement on items such as buffering, landscaping and zoning to office building use. • Shortly after the land was rezoned for office building use, the Planning Commission, of which he was a member, developed a Master Plan. It was agreed that Parcel E should not ever be rezoned again unless it reverted back to its original zoning of residential use. City Council adopted the Master Plan. Had the residents known what they know now, they would never have agreed to the rezoning of the land to office use. They learned by experience. By rezoning the land to office use, the developer was given an even more reasonable use of his land than originally zoned. This was done at his request. Last year, the developer came back to Planning Commission with still another request for an even higher zoning of general retail claiming there was no demand for office space in North Olmsted. Yet, all around us, other communities are building offices. Mayor Boyle has sent several good prospects who wanted a location for office buildings to Biskind Development and nothing ever came of it. Biskind Development does not want to develop this land--they only want to sell the land to Forest City Enterprises who plan to put up a Home Depot and another shopping strip right behind the residents' homes. On the surface, Ordinance 97-76 appears to be a very simple ordinance of a very simple issue. It proposes to change the zoning on Parcel E from office buildings to general retail use. But there are other issues involved. First, do we really need any more land zoned for retail use? Ten years ago, the Planning Commission, chaired by current Finance Director James Burns, turned down this same developer because they felt that North Olmsted already had too much land zoned for retail. Is this developer entitled to a higher zoning on this land? He had reasonable use of the land when he purchased it, but we gave him an even higher zoning. Our country's court system has ruled that municipalities cannot be forced to give a landowner a higher zoning if he has reasonable use of the land. This developer already has more than reasonable use of the land. The residents have been fighting this developer for eleven years and are getting tired of it. The value of homes in North Olmsted have not kept pace with other surrounding communities because of so much retail development. Residents who recently purchased homes in the Parkwest development did so with the understanding that Parcel E would be developed as office building space. Now they are worried about their investment in their homes. The residents understand that the developer will attempt 7