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Health & Fitness

Drink-N-Drive?

Will Highland Heights put on the brakes after specific details of Giant Eagle's Get-Go plan are revealed?

I caught only the tail end of the presentation given to Council last week by Lance Osborne and a Giant Eagle (GtE) rep, describing their joint development plans for the former Catalano’s grocery store property.

After talking to a couple people in the know, however, I can share these details:

  • Lance Osborne’s company plans to purchase the entire Catalano’s property and lease the northern portion (along Wilson Mills Road) to GtE.

  • GtE wants to install and operate 24/7 (24 hours a day, 7 days a week) eight gasoline pumping stations and a combination convenience store/café, selling grocery items, prepared food and alcoholic beverages – ideal, I guess, for consumers who like to drink 'n' drive.

  • The Catalano’s property is currently zoned Local Business, (LB) a fairly restrictive classification that permits only, "retail stores and (consumer) services conducted wholly within enclosed buildings" – i.e., conducted indoors. (Ordinance 1131.04(c)(B)). Drive-through restaurants and gas stations don’t qualify as permitted uses because they aren’t conducted "wholly" indoors.

  • Although Osborne apparently suggested that the city’s Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) could simply grant him a variance to use the Catalano’s property as a Get-Go gas station, that claim is belied by Ordinance 1113.10(E) (“Standards for Granting Variances,”) which reads:
    "The Commission shall have no powers to authorize as a variance, the establishment of a principal or an accessory use which is not specifically permitted in the district in which the use is intended." Translated, this means that P&Z couldn’t grant Osborne a variance to use the Catalano’s property as a gas station even if it wanted to because "service stations" are not a "specifically permitted" use in LB districts.

  • Because gas stations can’t be operated in LB districts, the Catalano’s property would have to be rezoned in order for GtE to put a GetGo gas station there.

 

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  • Because the Catalano’s property has to be rezoned, the fate of GtE’s GetGo plan will ultimately be decided – as it should be – by Highland Heights voters.

 

There are two questions that Mayor Scott Coleman and Council are facing at this point: 1) what is the proper and/or best way (if any) to rezone the property; and 2)  should Council put a rezoning issue on the November ballot?

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Question 1: How to rezone the Catalano’s property

The rezoning issue presents a very thorny issue for Osborne/GtE – and not just because Highland Heights voters will have the last say on whether the property is rezoned or not.

Highland Heights has a specific zoning classification for gas stations. Not surprisingly, it’s called: "Motor Service District" (MSD).

According to Ordinance 1131.04(e)(1)(B), (D), (E), the stated intent behind MSD zoning is: "To provide Motor Service Districts in convenient areas directly related to the freeway interchanges…; "To promote the most desirable and beneficial use of the land in the interchange areas;" and "To protect nearby residential neighborhoods by restricting the types of nearby uses, particularly at their common boundaries, which would create objectionable influences."

It’s questionable whether the Catalano’s property qualifies for MSD zoning given that it is not close to freeway interchanges, it does not sit in an "interchange area" and rezoning it as a MSD would not "protect nearby residential neighborhoods” from “objectionable influences."

Even if it is an option – an issue that the city’s law director has yet to weigh in on – voters would also have to agree to amend 1131.04(e)(4)(B),  which prohibits "the sale of intoxicating liquor and beer" in MSD.

That restriction is a death knell for GtE’s proposed drink 'n' drive plan.

As an alternative rezoning route, Osborne and GtE could ask voters: 1) to change the Catalano’s property from the more restrictive LB classification to a more liberal General Business (GB) one; and 2) to add motor service to the list of acceptable uses on GB properties.

The problem with that option is that the change in permitted use (to allow gas stations in GB districts) would apply to all GB-zoned property in the city, not just the Catalano’s site. That means present and future owners of GB-zoned property could put gas stations throughout the city whenever they felt like it.

It also might not be legal to add service stations as a permitted use in GB areas because it would effectively render the city’s MSD zoning classification redundant and irrelevant, thereby significantly undermining the city’s entire zoning scheme.

Bottom line, rezoning the Catalano’s property to allow for a Get-Go gas station appears to conflict with both the stated intent and provisions of the Highland Heights’ zoning code.

For that reason alone, the mayor and Council need to take the time to obtain some expert legal advice and to think things through, carefully and deliberately, before responding to the Osborne/GtE proposal.

Question # 2: Should Council put a zoning issue on the November ballot?

 There are two ways to put a zoning issue before the voters: Council can either put the issue on the ballot or a property owner can get it on the ballot via petition, by collecting signatures from Highland Heights voters asking it to be placed on the ballot.

It’s faster and easier to have Council put a rezoning issue on the ballot – and it has the added benefit of showing Council’s approval of the issue. Needless to say, Osborne and GtE are hoping that Council will agree (within the next two weeks) to put a Catalano’s property rezoning issue on the November ballot for them.

I’m hoping just as hard that Council won’t do that because I think it’s a rush job.

I think that there needs to be a lot more discussion and deliberation before any issue is put before the voters.

Why do I say that? Here’s the timeline:

GtE reps spoke with Council about the Catalano’s property for the first time on Dec. 14, 2010. At that time, they said that a GtE company was going to develop the entire Catalano’s property and that they were hoping to put a rezoning issue on the May 2011 ballot. When Council wanted more details, the reps told Mayor Scott Coleman and Council that they would return "within the next 1 to 2 months" with a more concrete proposal – including some sort of commitment regarding whether the existing grocery store building would be renovated, torn down or reduced in size.

A month later, Building Commissioner Dale Grabfelder reported that GtE hoped to have a necessary traffic study "done within the next couple weeks."

http://www.highlandhts.com/docs/city_council/committee%20minutes/2010/12-14-10_council_committee_minutes.htm

http://www.highlandhts.com/docs/city_council/committee%20minutes/2011/01-18-11_council_committee_minutes.htm

At least once a month after that, someone from Council would ask Mayor Scott Coleman and/or Building Commissioner Grabfelder for an update on GtE’s plan. The answer was always the same: there was no news; the city was still waiting to hear back from them.

Months and months went by: still nothing.

Suddenly – just weeks before the deadline for placing issues on the November ballot – GtE reappears with Osborne in the mix and it’s all "hurry, hurry" and "quick, quick"  – as if they weren’t the ones dragging their feet for the past five months. 

Osborne/GtE tell Council that they want a rezoning issue on the November ballot – even though Council has not had time to digest the details of their newest proposal for the Catalano’s property, traffic issues have never been discussed and there is no agreement on the rezoning. They also inform Council that 24/7 operation on the Catalano’s site is "non-negotiable."

The GetGo gas station is likely to draw drivers from at least a 10 miles radius. (I have friends in Euclid who are already vibrating at the thought of a GetGo in Highland Heights.)

You’ve seen Field of Dreams: "Build it and they will come." That’s the GetGo on the Catalano’s site.

Traffic study? Who cares! Hurry, hurry. Get it done.

I don’t know about you, but I always see red flags when people rush in at the last minute insisting that controversial decisions have to be made "right now, immediately, can’t wait." I figure people who do that are probably trying to pull a fast one – trying to get away with something that they couldn’t otherwise, if they showed up early, with enough time to discuss things all the way through.

Like I said, when that happens I usually see red flags.

Right now, though, all I’m seeing is red.

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