ThisWeek CW 01/12/2012
The Canal Winchester Planning and Zoning Commission on Jan. 9 voted to approve new commercial development standards.
The standards will be sent to city council for final approval.
The new guidelines reduce the maximum building height from 48 feet to 36 feet; allow smaller strip mall-type shopping centers to use complementary materials on the sides and backs of buildings if they do not face a right-of-way or serve customer traffic; and alter the setbacks for buildings that are larger than 20,000 square feet.
“The changes we made were based on in put from commissioners, the public and from the city’s development partners,” planning commission member Jeff Graber said. “So have the development partners said they’re OK with these standards now that we’ve made these changes?”
Planning and zoning administrator Andrew Dutton said that changes were not forwarded to developers. City development director Lucas Haire said a Casto representative attended the last planning commission meeting at which the changes were discussed “and overall, I think they were happy after they left.”
Haire has said new commercial development standards are needed in order to make commercial properties more pedestrian-friendly and provide a clear and concise set of zoning standards, instead of a mixture of codes spread throughout the zoning code text.
“Buildings that are greater than 20,000 square feet are to have a setback of 300 feet from the right of way and parking for those buildings may be at the front or the side, but 200 feet from the right of way so that you don’t have a sea of parking right up against a major road,” Dutton said. “Also, we’ll allow a driveway for a drive-through lane in front of a building as a conditional use.”
Graber said he was concerned about allowing drive-through lanes in front of buildings, particularly on the Waterloo Crossing outlots.
“We’ve had this discussion before about the buildings on Waterloo in front of Walmart, because we want people to walk from the community, down the sidewalk and into the front door of a restaurant without worrying about crossing traffic,” Graber said. “And we stuck with that with Chipotle. We’ve started down a path and I want to see that through.”
The other commissioners said they agreed with Graber.
“I don’t think we could exempt Waterloo Crossing from drive-throughs without creating a separate overlay,” Haire said. “As it is, it will be a conditional use that would have to go through this board for approval.”
Commissioner Mike Vasko said he hoped Haire and Dutton would communicate the board’s unwillingness to allow drive-throughs on those lots to developers before any development plans are brought to the planning commission for review.
Haire agreed that was a satisfactory solution.
In other news, Ohio Mulch’s appeal period has expired without any further communication from the company. In response, the commission officially voted to deny approval of Ohio Mulch’s zoning requests for a former Wendy’s off state Route 33. Canal Winchester City Council overturned the commission’s original decision to approve the applications.
The commission also approved an application for a residential deck addition at 296 Jones Place North; Vasko and Graber cast dissenting votes.
The next planning and zoning commission is scheduled at 7 p.m., Monday, Feb. 13, at Town Hall, 10 N. High St.