Far Northwest Coalition

AUGUST 2011 FNWC MINUTES

Far Northwest Coalition

Columbus, OH

 

August 31, 2011

 

The Far Northwest Coalition (FNWC) met for its regularly scheduled meeting at the Northwest Library on Hard Road.  Members present were John Best, Kelly Thompson, John Murley, Mike Brown, Gary Bruck and Rich Herner.

 

Best called the meeting to order.  He spoke about the City’s web site and contacts for code enforcement issues.  Residents can call 645-3111 or go online to www.311.columbus.gov to report these issues.  This will get the request into the system for an appropriate response by the City.  He mentioned that some of the car dealers on Billingsley Road were parking cars in the grass again as well as other signs still being in the right-of-way in the general area.

 

The Hard Road Park was mentioned and the fact that Maureen Lorenz of the City playground equipment designs and equipment were being reviewed.  The FNWC was pleased that the park project appears to be moving along as planned. 

 

Best then briefly discussed some of the imminent road projects in the area that had been mentioned by the Nancy Reger, MORPC representative at the last FNWC meeting.  PowerPoint presentations are available of these projects.  Best also noted that he had not heard anything more on the Quiet Railroad Zone that had been considered previously.

 

Charlie Fraas of Casto then spoke to the group in attendance concerning their redevelopment project in the New Market Mall area.  The project is to include two new restaurants (Logan’s Roadhouse and IHOP) and a limited service hotel.  He said they have been working on this project for 2 ½ - 3 years now, in conjunction with both the City of Columbus and Perry Township.  There will be vacant land between the Golfsmith store and the hotel, which is currently assumed to be a build-to-suit type of property at some point in the future.  There will also be another detention pond along I-270 in that area as a result of the new development.  All 3 curb cuts on Billingsley Road will be available for ingress and egress.  They are in the process of looking at small signage packages to help customers getting to and from the properties.

 

Steve Fox, a civil engineer with P&L Systems then made a presentation to the FNWC concerning the variance request from the IHOP restaurant to be built on this property concerning the number of parking spaces.  The City has in its code a maximum number of parking spaces based on the square footage of the building.  Under this code section, IHOP would be limited to 90 spaces but they feel, based on their experience with this size of restaurant that they need 125 spaces.  This will be a 24 hour service facility with a maximum capacity of 264 customers.  They had the same problem with another property on Renner Road which the BZA had no problems with allowing the variance.  He said this is same store that is in Hilliard and Reynoldsburg and some FNWC members were aware of the parking problems at the Reynoldsburg location because of this issue.  FNWC members were concerned about safety issues as well as egress back onto Billingsley and spillover from the site.  It was noted that the parking area will be curbed and that there is plenty of room to accommodate the higher number of spaces.  This variance request is scheduled to go before the BZA on October 24. 

 

Jeff Brown, the representative for Logan’s Roadhouse, then presented their request to the FNWC for graphics variances for their building, which is also part of this redevelopment at New Market mall.  Since their building is to be located at the front (west end) of the project, they feel their visibility will be limited because it will be located behind the other properties that are fronting on Sawmill Road.  Consequently, they are asking for graphics variances on the size of the signs on their building (51 sq. ft. versus code of 41.25 sq. ft.), as well putting internally illuminated signs on all four sides, rather than just the side facing the street.  In addition, they are asking for a variance on the height of the freestanding, internally illuminated sign on I-270 from 20 feet to 35 feet.  This request is to go to the BZA on September 30. 

 

The FNWC had concerns about the height of the requested sign and what precedent that may set for other businesses in the immediate area as well as the request for signs on all four sides of the building.  Brown felt that they need to additional visibility because of the location behind the other businesses and the difficulty in accessing the site.  The group had less concern about the size of the signs on the building than the requested height for the freestanding sign.  FNWC members also noted that these signs should not be electronic, with any changeable or movable copy.  Brown said that would not be the case.  The monument sign on Sawmill Road was also discussed by the group with the Casto representative.  The FNWC also noted that it had concerns about IHOP and the hotel requesting sign variances also and suggested that the developer consider ways to mitigate the number and size of signs in relation to the redevelopment project.

 

The FNWC then had a lengthy discussion about both variance requests, with most concern being for the Logan’s Roadhouse sign requests.  The group was very concerned about the precedence being set for the 35’ freestanding sign height.  It was again noted that the subject site does have visibility and access issues and the higher sign may well be necessary.  After additional discussion, it was moved and seconded, to approve the graphics variance requests by Logan’s Roadhouse to be located in the New Market Mall area as presented, subject to the stipulation that there be no movable or changeable copy on any of the signs.  Motion passed.

 

The IHOP variance request was then discussed, specifically to safety issues if there are not enough designated parking spaces, as appears to be the case at their Reynoldsburg location.  It was then moved and seconded, to support the variance request from IHOP to be built in the New Market Mall area, to increase the number of parking spaces from 90 to 125, as substantially presented, considering the potential safety issues.  Motion passed.

 

It was then moved and seconded to approve the FNWC Minutes from the March, April and June 2011 meetings as presented.  Motion passed.

 

There being no further business to come before the FNWC, the meeting was adjourned.

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

 

Rich Herner

FNWC Secretary