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Latest Hawthorne Valley plan has long way to go
(by Sue Reid - February 03, 2010)
Latest Hawthorne Valley plan has long way to go
By SUE REID
The Solon planning commission approved a motion last week to move the request by Transcon Builders to develop the Hawthorne Valley Country Club site to its inactive agenda.
Information on the proposed 111-lot subdivision southeast of Aurora (Route 43) and Richmond (Route 175) roads has not been presented, city Engineer John J. Busch said. Information that is required, including the flood-plain-base-elevation study, could take up to three months, he said.
The city has 180 days to move the project forward from the time a completed application is submitted.
"There's a lot of work to be done," Mr. Busch said.
He said the study determines what the actual 100-year flood elevation will be through the subdivision area.
"Right now, those are not determined based on the flood-insurance rate maps," Mr. Busch said. The study is a time-consuming process, he said.
"There is obviously additional things that have not been submitted, such as storm-water-management calculations and a whole list of requirements they had to submit as part of code requirements for a preliminary plat," Mr. Busch said.
Developer Fred Rzepka, part owner of Transcon, appeared before the commission last month with his third attempt to develop the site. The latest proposal is for the largest subdivision in the city in the past decade. The proposal is intended to comply with the single-family residential zoning on the site with a one-acre minimum lot size, single-family subdivision.
With Mr. Rzepka's current proposal, no zoning change would be required, although the plan that has been submitted designates several zoning variances. They primarily relate to deviations from the required 100-foot front-yard setback for the proposed residences due to water features and the best location on the individual lot.
Wayne P. Repko, project manager for GPD Group, said last week that he and the developer are going to put together all of the information that is required by the city's zoning code as soon as possible. "We'll make a resubmission," he said. "We would like to do this as soon as possible."
Mr. Rzepka's first two attempts at rezoning the area for a more clustered development failed on the ballot. The last time the rezoning was on the ballot in 2007. Although it passed city wide, it failed in Ward 5, where it is located. Mr. Rzepka appealed this decision the Ohio Supreme Court, which supported the city's method that the issue needed support of the affected ward and citywide.
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