Chardon Planning Commission Ok’s O’Reilly’s Auto Parts Plans
Chardon City Planning Commission approved Sept. 19 the concept site plan for a 7,402-square-foot O’Reilly’s Auto Parts store on 1.41 acres at 379 Center Street.
The vacant lot is between the Love Insurance offices and the Geauga Metropolitan Housing Authority facility, said planning and zoning administrator Steve Yaney.
The brick on the auto parts store will closely match the brick on the Love Insurance building, he said, adding the two businesses will share a parking lot and a retention pond.
O’Reilly Auto Enterprises LLC, represented by design engineer Bobby Laird of Anderson Engineering in Springfield Missouri, has been very agreeable about changing its windows and making the background of its sign browner than usual to meet city guidelines, Yaney said.
Commission chairman Ken Miller said the city architect has reviewed and approved the plans and recommended the commission approve the application.
“It’s much easier to have everything ready and not raise major questions,” Miller said before the commission unanimously approved the site plan.
Later, Laird said the plan is to break ground in October and it will take about 90 days to complete construction.
In other business, the commission agreed to allow a use variance for the continued use of a third residential unit in an existing two-family dwelling at 204 Park Avenue owned by Frank Kaminski and Lauren Wade.
When Kaminski recently bought the building, the third apartment had been in use for several decades, Yaney said, adding the owner wants a use variance for the structure because it doesn’t meet the current zoning code.
The previous owner did not respond to requests for the history of the third unit, he said.
Everyone within 200 feet of the property was notified of the application and the only person who came forward said he has no problem with the city granting the variance, Yaney said.
Miller said residential zoning is relatively new to the city.
“Before 1972, we didn’t have a zoning code that dealt with housing,” he said, so starting in 1960, a lot of single-family homes were converted to multi-family residences.
If the unit was added before 1972, it would be grandfathered in, Miller said.
“I see no logical reason not to grant the variance,” he said.
Commission member Andy Blackley said he has reservations about the variance.
“I don’t like the idea of turning a historical house into apartments. It’s not a great thing for the viability of our housing stock,” he said, however, he voted in favor of the variance.
