City Council May Extend Development Moratorium On Land Near Solon Village

A developer wants to build something, maybe a restaurant, on a parcel of commercially-zoned land near Solon Village.

But Solon officials plan to rezone the land back to office zoning, which

But city planners want to revert the land, once slated to be part of a redevelopment of the Solar Center shopping plaza, back to office zoning.

The city expects to send the question to Solon voters in May, so on Monday night city council members will vote on whether to extend a development moratorium, set to expire before the spring election, until after voters have had their say.

City Council meets at 7:30 p.m. tonight in City Hall.

BACKGROUND

Restaurants are not permitted uses in office zoning.

Percap Realty Ltd., a former partner in past efforts to redevelop Solar Center, owns the 2.5-acre parcel in question and would like to build a restaurant on the property, planning director Rob Frankland told council members in September.

Frankland also said he has been receiving calls from restaurants inquiring about building on that land.

City Council imposed a development moratorium on the property in May 2012 as city planners figure out what to do with it.

On Tuesday, Frankland said both the planning commission and the master plan committee have recommended rezoning the land back to office.

When Solon voters decided to rezone the Solar Center in 2009 so the outdated shopping plaza could be developed, a key piece was an undeveloped 2.5 acre parcel along Aurora Road.

So the shopping plaza, and that parcel, were rezoned from office to a commercial district.

But now, with Solar Center being redeveloped into Solon Village, that parcel is no longer important to the development efforts, but is still zoned commercially.

Frankland said converting the land back to office zoning would be a better transition from the shopping plaza to the residential area just to the east, the Carrington Court senior apartments. It's also still zoned office across the street, so that makes better sense from a planning perspective.

City council scheduled a public hearing on the matter for its next meeting later in September.