Chardon Planning OK’s New Building Projects
Chardon Planning Commission met Jan. 17 to discuss a concept plan for a new roughly 35,000-square-foot industrial building to be located on about 4 acres at the corner of Park Drive and Seventh Avenue.
Chardon Planning Commission met Jan. 17 to discuss a concept plan for a new roughly 35,000-square-foot industrial building to be located on about 4 acres at the corner of Park Drive and Seventh Avenue.
The building would be adjacent to — and an expansion of — Ohio Ordnance Works, which currently operates in an 11,625-square-foot building on the same lot.
According to its website, OOW was founded by Robert Landies in 1981 and employs over 80 people. The business supplies light, medium and heavy machine guns to the U.S. military and militaries around the world, and manufactures small arms “engineered and modified specifically for training simulators and various military mounting solutions.”
At their meeting Jan. 12, Chardon City Council approved a resolution to exempt the new building from the installation of sidewalks. The business requested the approval of five variances for the new building, including allowing a loading dock in the front yard; allowing a parking space less than the required 10-foot setback from a building wall with doors or windows; allowing a loading area inside the required front yard setback; increasing the maximum driveway width at the right-of-way from 35 feet to 48 feet; and building a concrete pad to encroach the side yard setback and cross the property line.
All five variances were approved unanimously, although commission member Lene Hill and Vice-Chairman Mary Jo Stark were absent.
Colin Wantz questioned Yaney and Landies on some of the variances, including a lack of windows planned for the new building. As they provide ordnance to over 40 countries, the business tries to remain anonymous to the outside, Landies said.
Windows would invite curiosity, which would require a much higher — and much more visible — layer of security.
Another discussion was held with Leon Sampat, owner of LS Architects, regarding plans to build a new congregate care senior facility on Meadowlands Drive adjacent to Walmart. Sampat was joined by Steve Nicholas, of Smartland Investments, which he said currently has the property under contract.
Nicholas said the project would be an age-restricted community with 124 connected homes and would allow seniors to live independently with healthcare given through a contract with a local provider.
He has built over 20 similar projects, Nicholas told the commission.
Plans would include a community center housing a managing physician, as well as onsite nursing staff. His team is meeting with University Hospitals in the coming weeks to solidify plans for a partnership, he said.
Units would be between 1,600 and 1,800 square feet, with a target cost of about $1,800 to $2,500 per month, which Nicholas said is considerably less than the $4,000 to $6,000 monthly costs associated with assisted living facilities.
In other business, the planning commission voted to change their meetings to the fourth Tuesday of each month to accommodate commission members’ and city staff’s changing schedules.
