Explanation
Council Variance Application: CV12-012
APPLICANT: Peak Property Group, LLC; c/o Juliet Bullock, Architect; 1182 Wyandotte Road Donald Plank, Attorney, Plank law Firm, 145 East Rich Street, 3rd Flr.; Columbus, OH 43212 43215.
PROPOSED USE: First-floor residential use.
UNIVERSITY AREA COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: Disapproval.
CITY DEPARTMENTS' RECOMMENDATION: Approval. The requested Council variance will allow first-floor residential use in approximately half of a mixed-use commercial building zoned C-4, Commercial District, and located within the Urban Commercial Overlay (UCO). A total of seven apartment units are proposed on the first and second floors. The building was originally constructed as a thirteen-unit apartment building, but all of the first floor was converted to commercial uses in the 1990's. The requested Council variance will allow part of the first floor to be converted back to apartment units. A Council variance is necessary because dwellings are only permitted above specified commercial uses in the C-4, Commercial District. A variance to conform the existing building setback in the UCO is included in the request. The site has been subject of two recent Board of Zoning Adjustment parking variances (09310-00107 & 12310-00077), and since residential uses require less parking than commercial uses, a parking variance is not required for this request. The site lies within the boundaries of the University Neighborhoods Revitalization Plan (1996), which recommends community commercial uses for this location. Given that the building was originally constructed for residential purposes, and that commercial uses will still be located in the building along the High Street frontage, Staff is supportive of this request which will not add an incompatible use to the neighborhood.
Title
To grant a Variance from the provisions of Sections 3356.03, C-...
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