Two city neighborhoods lose development fights
Harrison West apartments, Clintonville parking lot OK’d
By Doug Caruso
Columbus
City Council members approved two construction projects tonight despite
opposition from residents who urged them to uphold city-approved neighborhood
plans.
About
100 people packed the council chambers, about half of them from the Harrison
West neighborhood just south of Ohio State University and about half from
Clintonville.
In the
Harrison West case, the council unanimously approved allowing the Wagenbrenner
Co. to build a 108-unit apartment building on a 1.9-acre parcel that was planned
for no more than 75 units. In the second, council members voted 6-1 to allow the
Wesley Glen Retirement Center to build a 120-space parking lot on residential
land on Fenway Road to the north of its campus.
Councilwoman Priscilla R. Tyson cast the no vote.
Harrison
West neighbors said that Wagenbrenner officials told them as recently as April
that the site near their homes in the developer’s Harrison Park neighborhood
would hold 42 condominiums. The plan for 108 apartments is too dense, and at
four stories too tall, they said. They also said it will cause more traffic and
attract single young adults instead of families.
“This
proposal violates the entire spirit of the Harrison West plan,” Adam Deutsch,
president of the Harrison Park Homeowners Association, told the council. “You’re
setting a precedent that says to developers, ‘It’s open season on Harrison
West.’”
Developer Mark Wagenbrenner defended the proposal, saying the
entire Harrison Park development on former industrial land near the Olentangy
River was planned for 345 units. This project won’t change that overall density,
he said.
The
project changed to apartments from condominiums, he said, because that’s where
the market is. Eventually, he said, the company plans to sell the one- and
two-bedroom units, but nobody wants to buy condominiums now.
Councilman A. Troy Miller, the council’s zoning chairman, said
he was persuaded to vote yes because the 345-unit limit on the whole development
won’t be exceeded, and by Wagenbrenner’s past record.
“His
work has been very good,” Miller said. “We’re not talking about a question of an
unknown developer making these changes.”
In the
other case, both the Clintonville Area Commission and the city’s zoning office
opposed the parking lot because it encroaches on a residential area designated
in the neighborhood’s plan.
Apologetic officials from the retirement home said they got into
a parking crunch when they built a new activity center for their residents on a
former parking area. Despite several attempts to come up with a plan that would
appease neighbors, they were unable to do so, said Michael Shannon, the attorney
for the retirement home.
D
Searcy, a member of the area commission, said the retirement home has other
options, including a lot across N. High Street that’s already zoned for
commercial use. She said the center’s operators should have known when they
built the activity center that parking would be a problem.
But two
other members of the area commission, Jennifer Kangas and John DeFourney, told
the council that the plan to place the parking on Fenway near High Street is the
best option for solving Wesley Glen’s problems. DeFourney, the area commission
president, signed up to speak against the zoning change, then asked council
members to approve it.
Miller
said a zoning change was necessary to help the center’s employees: “We’re trying
to take care of those who are taking care of elderly individuals.”
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