Planning Commission OK’s Chardon Family Eyecare Office

July 31, 2025 by Allison Wilson

Chardon Planning Commission green-lit the development of a new eye doctor’s office to house Chardon Family Eyecare at 223 Center Street July 22.

While CFE will occupy a majority of the 9,000-square-foot building, there will be a small space on the west side for other tenants, said Community Development Administrator Steve Yaney.

“(Chardon Family Eyecare owner Bianca Kostranchuk) tends to have an ability to want to think forward and expand, so I have a feeling in the future, that’ll actually be her space instead of a rental space,” project applicant and Cold Harbor Building Company founder Dale Griffis told the planning commission.

A plat consolidation will be required, Griffis said, noting the property is actually two separate pieces and an easement will be required for the sanitary sewer.

Erin Carpenter, a senior architect with Cleveland-based City Architecture, described the building design as simple and contemporary, with clean lines.

The main material for the facade will be cast stone and the roof will be a mixture of asphalt shingle and thermoplastic polyolefin flat roof, she said.

“I’m super excited to have a new office here to be able to utilize,” Kostranchuk said. “I’ve outgrown the current space, so it’s going to be great to have a new space.”

In other business, Pride One Construction sought approval to rezone a 12.56-acre property at 464 Center Street — formerly De Nora Tech — from Industrial – Wireless Telecommunications Overlay district to C-4 General Commercial district.

“This is something that came before planning commission a couple of years ago. It was going to be an area-wide rezoning and there were three or four other properties that were included,” Yaney said. “At this time, the only one that’s going forward with the rezoning is the one at 464 Center Street.”

One of the neighboring properties would not require a rezoning and the other formerly-included properties have changed ownership, he said.

In 2023, the planning commission voted in favor of rezoning the properties between 436 and 500 Center Street, an area spanning around 35 acres and including the old county offices. At the time, Yaney said there had been a feasibility study indicating the area could attract restaurants, retail operations or hotels.

“City council tabled it at the time because De Nora Tech wasn’t sure what they were going to do with the property and they asked us to pause that area-wide rezoning,” Yaney said at the July meeting.

As the C-4 district allows for mixed use, POC would like to eventually use the back portion of the property for townhomes and the remaining space along Center Street as commercial outparcels, he added.

The outparcels would vary in size from 0.8 acres to just over 2 acres, said POC Entitlement and Acquisition Manager Loudan Klein.

“We’ve already been working with some national retail chains and there’s a significant amount of interest in that property, so we feel very strongly about getting users in there rather quickly if the rezoning and project were to proceed,” he added.

The back acreage could be allocated into luxury villas ranging in size from 900 square feet to 1,400 square feet, Klein said, adding the majority of the units would be single-story and two-bedroom.

“This will be our fifteenth community in Ohio, North Carolina and Florida,” said Ryan Sommers, of residential developer Grey Fox Capital. “We did an internal market study and feel very confident there is enough demand (for the villas).”

The final villas will be slightly higher end rentals, with a mid-50s demographic of empty nesters, professionals and snowbirds, he said.

“These are folks that sell big houses with yards that want to stay here, but don’t necessarily want to plow their sidewalk every winter,” he said.

While the planning commission voted in favor of recommending the change to city council, council will make the final determination.