08/07/2007 Meeting Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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Council Minutes of 8/7/2007 Councilman Gareau requested a moment of personal privilege and announced his family had welcomed their first daughter, Elizabeth Marie, born on July 27. Mom and baby are doing well, and big brothers Jack and William are very excited to have a little sister. Councilman Gareau, chairperson of the Building, Zoning & Development Committee: 1) The committee met on June 27, 2007 at 7 p.m. Present were committee members Gareau, Orlowski, Miller; Council Members Barker, Jones, Tallon and Council President Kennedy; Law Director Dubelko, Planning Director Wenger, Service Director Limpert, Finance Director Copfer. There was one item on the agenda, Walter's Advanced Dentistry, 4780 Clague Road, with a proposal to remove an existing residential structure and construct a new dentist office and site improvements. The office will be 3,300 square feet and contain eight dental stations. The building was sited with a standard 50 foot residential setback. Parking is in the rear, and the site has no direct curb cut onto Clague Road or Brookpark Road as they will be using the existing driveway at Wellington Place as a shared access driveway. A number of trees are to be removed from the site which is currently occupied by asingle-family residential structure. The lot is zoned for multi-family. There is an extensive landscape plan that has been filed which includes multiple additional plantings around the building and parking area. The lighting will meet the city code requirements. The lighting but is directed in a downward direction, and it is shielded from view from a distance. Storm water was addressed through the presentation by the Planning Director. Storm water will use a retention basin in front of the building at the corner of Brookpark and Clague. It's a pond and will have a fountain to prevent water stagnation. It will be surrounded by a decorative fence. The lot is not zoned for commercial or office development. The Board of Zoning Appeals approved, and the Planning & Design Commission recommended, a use variance to allow an office within a multiple residence district. Dr. Walters was present and addressed the committee. He advised he and his father and his wife had been in the City of North Olmsted for 40 years. They are currently in the community building here in North Olmsted, and they'd like to develop the practice by moving outside of their current confined space. Councilman Orlowski spoke on the matter and felt the parameters of the use variance were not clearly explained or reviewed by BZD in terms of what is a necessary hardship. He explained that he felt economic hardship was not a sufficient basis to grant the variance. He explained the character of the property and use of the property were not commensurate with any hardship. He felt the minutes of the BZA meeting lacked evidence of a hardship; and, reading from the minutes, he cited the chairman and his comments that a proof of hardship just simply didn't exist. Mr. Orlowski also addressed several other concerns. One, the basement being ADA compatible for ingress and ingress; two, the basement was not sprinkled; three, the fact that the basement had only one means of ingress and egress. He also expressed concern about removing the vegetation/trees from the property along Brookpark Road. Mr. Orlowski remarked he felt this was too small a lot for the building proposed. He felt that evidence of multiple variances being granted demonstrated that. Mr. Orlowski remarked that he was concerned with the traffic and the fact that Wellington Place shift changes currently contribute to people having traffic back-ups on Clague Road. He felt that this would make the problem worse. He felt the pie-shape of the property made the property unsuitable for the current proposed dental use. Mr. Dubelko at that point reminded 6