Brecksville Planning Commission votes to allow retail, restaurants in Valor Acres

The Brecksville Planning Commission last week delayed voting on the proposed first mixed-use building in Valor Acres. This image courtesy of DiGeronimo Development LLC.

BRECKSVILLE, Ohio -- The Brecksville Planning Commission voted unanimously last week to allow clothing stores, restaurants, pharmacies, beauty and barber shops and other types of retail businesses in the mixed-use section of Valor Acres at the northwest corner of Brecksville and Miller roads.

However, the commission delayed approval of the mixed-use section’s roadway grid and first building, which will contain the new headquarters of Valor Acres developer DiGeronimo Development LLC, now based in Independence.

DiGeronimo also will have to wait at least another month before it can start excavating and grading on the mixed-use site, the commission decided.

During another marathon meeting Jan. 26 -- this one lasting nearly four hours -- commission members were confused and uncertain over municipal zoning laws and how they applied to Valor Acres. They disagreed and debated.

Commissioner Dominic Sciria worried that if the commission approved the mixed-use roadway grid depicted on DiGeronimo’s conceptual drawing -- which also showed the location and height of each building -- the city would be locked into the entire mixed-use layout and be unable to seek future changes.

Sciria and Councilman Brian Stucky, a commission member, were especially concerned about the building heights and were reluctant to approve five stories.

“We’re just buying into a pretty picture right now,” Sciria said about DiGeronimo’s mixed-use conceptual plan.

“We have not said one thing that we buy into the entire development,” Mayor Jerry Hruby countered.

“Then they (the buildings) don’t need to be on the plan,” Sciria said.

Monica Bartkiewicz, the city’s director of planning and community development, told the commission that DiGeronimo will have to seek commission approval for each individual building in the mixed-use section. The commission will have a say-so over various aspects of each building, including height.

Sciria doubted Bartkiewicz and asked that DiGeronimo remove all of the buildings from its conceptual plan before the commission voted on the roadway grid.

Commissioner Ron Payto disagreed with Sciria. He said the commission can clarify in its motion to approve the roadway grid that it’s not yet approving the buildings.

“If (DiGeronimo) just came in here with (one) building and a roadway, I wouldn’t vote for anything,” Payto said. “I’d say, ‘What the hell are you doing?’”

Stucky said Sciria feared that residents -- some of whom oppose five-story buildings in Valor Acres -- might errantly believe that the commission is approving five stories if the commission approved the roadway grid.

“I can handle that (problem) with a 30-second introduction to the whole (planning commission) audience to clarify that -- and I’ll talk slowly,” Payto said.

Bartkiewicz said she can have Law Director David Matty weigh in on the issue. Meanwhile, the commission scheduled a 7 p.m. Feb. 23 public hearing on the mixed-use roadway grid and the first building.

Since the commission didn’t approve the roadway grid last week, DiGeronimo must wait before excavating and grading the mixed-use site. The excavating and grading aspects will be included in the Feb. 23 public hearing discussion.

Businesses are coming

The 24-acre mixed-use section of Valor Acres is zoned an office-laboratory district.

However, in November 2016, Brecksville voters approved “overlay” zoning for the entire 189-acre Valor Acres site, which will include a new Sherwin-Williams Co. research and development center and a luxury residential subdivision.

That means that although the office-lab zoning remains in place, the city can permit other types of businesses -- including retail, restaurants and hotels -- as conditional uses. Each type of overlaid use requires prior planning commission approval.

On Jan. 26, the planning commission approved a local-business-district overlay on top of the existing office-lab zoning. This allows DiGeronimo to bring business types listed under the city’s local-business zoning code -- as well as offices and labs -- to Valor Acres’ mixed-use section.

Businesses permitted in local business districts include clothing stores, restaurants, pharmacies, beauty and barber shops, pharmacies, florists, hardware stores, music shops, laundromats, tailors, appliance repair stores, art studios and automobile-repair shops.

DiGeronimo’s mixed-use plan also includes residential units on top of retail and a hotel, neither of which are permitted under local-business or office-lab zoning.

That means DiGeronimo will need the planning commission to approve additional overlay districts -- in this case motor-service, which allows hotels, and apartment districts -- in the future.

On Jan. 26, Kevin DiGeronimo, principal of DiGeronimo Development, told the commission that his conceptual plan contains about 75,000 square feet of retail, not including a planned grocery store; about 240,000 square feet of office space; and about 200,000 square feet of residential, consisting of between 175 and 250 living units.

Stucky said the mixed-use section didn’t need so many apartments. He also opposed five-story buildings, adding that he would approve four stories.

Bartkiewicz repeated that the commission will have the ability to set the height of each building as they are presented at future meetings.

Sciria said the mixed-use buildings under DiGeronimo’s conceptual plan were too close to the street. The building setbacks are 30 feet from the street on Miller and 50 feet from the street on Brecksville.

However, other commission members -- including Hruby, Payto and Lawry Kardos -- said they were fine with the building setbacks.

Sciria also asked DiGeronimo to line up one of the Brecksville Road entrances into Valor Acres with the driveway to Lubrizol Advanced Materials Inc. off the east side of Brecksville.

DiGeronimo said lining up the Valor Acres-Lubrizol entrances would not “accommodate tenants we are trying to attract.” He did not elaborate.

The first building

DiGeronimo said the five-story building containing his company’s future headquarters, standing close to the Brecksville-Miller intersection, would consist of a restaurant and/or retail along with a common area on the first floor, offices on higher floors and a covered parking area.

The plan showed a 100-space parking lot or garage next to the office building. The problem is the office building doesn’t have enough parking spaces to meet code requirements based on the building’s size.

DiGeronimo said the office building would share additional parking spaces with another mixed-use building that he has not yet presented to the commission for review.

City Engineer Gerry Wise suggested that DiGeronimo “landbank” or set aside room for possible additional parking spaces that may or may not be built, depending on the actual demand for parking spaces once the development opens.

Kardos asked if anyone was concerned about how the modern architecture of DiGeronimo’s headquarters building might age.

“My initial take is this is not like anything similar to the city, and I do have some concerns in terms of how it will look in 20 years,” Kardos said.

DiGeronimo said the buildings will be made of the highest-quality material and will be well-maintained. He said masonry has been added to the building so that it better reflects the classical design of other buildings in town.

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