STRONGSVILLE, Ohio -- A family’s request to rezone a 7½-acre parcel on Ohio 82 from industrial to residential is in limbo.
Linda Acierno and James Erskine of Brook Park applied for the rezoning in August after they inherited the parcel from a family member, according to city and Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office records.
The parcel, off the north side of Ohio 82 between Prospect Road to the east and Darice Parkway to the west, is zoned industrial, according to city officials, even though it contains a ranch house and garage.
In the rezoning application, Acierno said she and Erskine wanted to sell the parcel as residential. However, during a Jan. 3 public hearing on the rezoning, Acierno asked City Council to table the rezoning request “so I can figure out what I am going to do about trying to sell it,” according to hearing transcripts.
At the end of the Jan. 3 meeting, council referred the rezoning application “back to the committee.” However, the item did not appear on the Jan. 17 or the Feb. 6 agenda of council’s Planning, Zoning and Engineering Committee.
Law Director Neal Jamison did not respond to emails asking about the rezoning request’s status and asking why a house is on industrial land. Acierno and Erskine could not be reached in time for this story.
Council members have said little about the rezoning request since it first appeared on their agenda Oct. 17. At that time, council referred the matter to the Planning Commission for a recommendation, according to meeting minutes.
At the Nov. 17 Planning Commission meeting, Dan Kolick, assistant law director, told the commission that he had talked to a real estate agent involved with the parcel. According to the agent, Acierno and Erskine didn’t have plans for the property.
“It would probably have a rough time being developed on its own for general industrial, but there are some lots that adjoin it to the east of it that could be put together and assembled to do something for general industrial,” Kolick told the commission.
“So council is looking for a recommendation on it, but I really don’t see a reason to rezone it now,” Kolick said.
Kolick noted that the zoning Acierno and Erskine requested was “R1-75,” which means a residential lot with a minimum lot width of 75 feet. He said no other lots are zoned R1-75 in that area.
The commission unanimously recommended against the rezoning.
At council’s Jan. 3 public hearing, only one resident, Alexandra Vidmar of Valleybrook Lane, registered an opinion about the rezoning request. She said she favored a rezoning to residential. Valleybrook is just north of the Acierno-Erskine parcel.
Vidmar said her family bought land on Valleybrook seven years ago. At the time, Vitalia Senior Residences had already been built on Ohio 82 slightly east of the Acierno-Erskine parcel, but plenty of trees still screened the development from Valleybrook.
Then, a Vitalia expansion “decimated” the woods, and now Vidmar can see the Vitalia parking lot from her home.
“The whole reason that we and everyone else bought land in that neighborhood was for the dense (soundproof) trees and the beauty, a great place to raise kids,” Vidmar said.
“Seeing Route 82 and hearing Route 82 in our back yard is rather unpleasant, and further expanding this to more general industrial will virtually wipe out all those trees and bring us right up against Route 82.”
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