Parkstone Partners Asks Judge to Rezone Property Despite Ballot Defeat

Will a county judge defy the will of Solon voters and rezone property from the bench?

Parkstone Capital Partners, locked for years in a lawsuit with the city of Solon over rezoning land at Solon's northern border, filed a motion last week asking Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court Judge John Sutula to judicially rezone the land.

The move comes after Solon voters overwhelmingly defeated a ballot measure in November that would have rezoned the land to allow duplexes or townhouses.

An attorney for Solon residents, who have vigorously opposed rezoning the land and intervened in the lawsuit between the city and Parkstone, said the judge should deny Parkstone's request.

“I think the residents deserve to be heard and the motion is inappropriate,” said Warner Mendenhall. “The citizens have the right to have the vote they took last year respected.”

Solon Mayor Susan Drucker said the city expected Parkstone to file this motion eventually, but she declined to comment further because the city had not yet received its notification of the motion.

An attorney for Parkstone, Kenneth Fisher, did not return a message asking for comment.

The undeveloped land at the southeastern corner of Miles and SOM Center roads is zoned for single-family homes. But Parkstone, the land's owner, has been fighting to rezone the land to allow something denser than single-family homes.

Residents in the area have vigorously opposed those options, saying that the land should remain single-family homes to keep it in harmony with the rest of the neighborhood.

Last year, Sutula ordered Solon to put the rezoning before the voters or he would rezone it himself. The voters did decide, with 86 percent of those casting ballots voting no.