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City planners to focus on Giant Eagle rezoning
(by Sue Reid - July 01, 2009)
City planners to focus on Giant Eagle rezoning
By SUE REID
The Solon planning commission's focus for plans at the Solar Shopping Center, where a prototype 99,900-square-foot Giant Eagle supermarket has been proposed, is the rezoning aspect of it rather than the site plan, commission member Roger C. Newberry said last week.
"Before this commission moves this to council, a development agreement is key, but a plat is needed of the exact location of the rezoning," Mr. Newberry said.
Planning Director Robert S. Frankland told the commission that Perlick-Caplan, owner of the Solar Shopping Center at the southeast corner of SOM Center (Route 91) and Aurora (Route 43) roads, has proposed some zoning changes. That would allow for a reconstructed Giant Eagle on-site, a tear-down of 75 percent of the plaza and an arrangement of parcels along the perimeter of the site. A Get-Go gas station would be part of that, but it would require a zoning change.
To lease a small section that would be a gas station, zoning needs to be changed from C-3 general retail to C-4 motor-service commercial. Shopping center owners would be asking for C-3 zoning change for properties they own east of the plaza currently zoned office, Mr. Frankland said.
The preliminary development plan is not what the commission would be voting on, he said. "You will be voting on zone changes. Zone changes would be associated with this type of proposal."
The owners are requesting that the zoning changes be placed on the November ballot.
"You are on a rather tight time frame," Mr. Frankland told the commission.
He said the hope is to have a recommendation to City Council by its first meeting in August. Mr. Frankland said he is proposing that the city follow the same guidelines as it did with the Coral Co. project, a lifestyle center which was proposed last year but then dropped.
A development agreement will be done to solidify the site plan and to protect residential areas, Mr. Frankland said, and he is proposing that the city hire legal counsel to go over the agreement.
"We have to appoint an attorney," and it is hoped that council will do that at its July 6 meeting, he said. Negotiations on the development agreement, which will clearly define how the project will look, are expected to start immediately afterward, Mr. Frankland said.
Solon Law Director David J. Matty told council members at their last meeting that Giant Eagle is a client, and he would have to recuse himself from being involved with the project.
Mr. Frankland said he had a telephone conversation with Giant Eagle in which company officials said they saw the plan and are interested. The company understands it must commit to the plan before City Council would send this to the ballot, he said.
Mr. Frankland said he wrote a draft document that addresses general planning issues with the project. In reference to the gas station, he said, the city's No. 1 preference is that it be located on the former Sunoco site, which is on the northeast corner of SOM Center and Aurora roads. This would free up more area for green space on the Solar site as well as not increase the number of gas stations in the city, he said. Mr. Frankland said the Get-Go proposal would be a "much smaller" type.
Mr. Frankland told the commission that Giant Eagle's preference is to have the Get-Go on site, but said that one within a half-mile or a quarter-mile is preferable.
Mr. Newberry said he has a problem with the C4 zoning where it is proposed because it is nowhere close to a freeway interchange. City zoning code says that motor-service districts are for the convenience of the motoring public and are to be located near freeway interchanges, he said.
Mayor Kevin C. Patton said he is very pleased with what the shopping center owners are proposing and hopes it can be moved to the ballot this fall.
"The Solon community deserves a model, up-to-date Giant Eagle, and it could do a lot for the retail" in the area," Mr. Patton said.
Assistant City Engineer Joan Milhoan told Mr. Frankland that the engineering department wants to be involved in the development agreement due to issues involving such things as storm-water runoff.
"With a tight time frame, we all need to work together," Councilman and commission member Lon D. Stolarsky said.
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