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Bitter debate splits village: Build housing or businesses?

Boston Heights has a 160-acre piece of prime real estate, but the community is divided over how to develop the land.

By Rick Armon
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Wednesday, May 21, 2008

BOSTON HEIGHTS: For more than 10 years, developers have salivated over the possibility of bringing a large retail complex to this small village.

The ideal spot?

The closed Boston Hills Country Club, a mix of open space and trees along bustling state Route 8, where more than 48,000 vehicles pass by each day. The site is a stone's throw from Interstate 80 (the Ohio Turnpike), not to mention just down the road from Interstate 271.

But when a developer proposed a megamall there 10 years ago, residents rose up to fend off the project, arguing it would change the character of a suburban community of 1,200 people whose backyard includes the Cuyahoga Valley National Park.

Even when the U.S. military wanted to put a training facility there, residents drove it away with their objections.

Now many residents are fighting again — this time against a retail and office complex and possible hospital, a project that has earned the reluctant blessing of village leaders.

The latest development effort has turned into a soap opera of sorts. There has been a voter referendum and a lawsuit by the developer, followed by council overriding the referendum to settle the lawsuit.

Mix in accusations of secrecy, a special council meeting at 9:30 p.m. on Mother's Day and now a taxpayer lawsuit, and it's been a heck of a year in Boston Heights.


''Normally, it's a nice, easy-going community, but lately, oh, my God,'' said Ronald Fenn, who has lived in the village for more than 40 years.

The beginning

The former golf course, at the corner of Route 8 and East Hines Hill Road, had been a community landmark since it opened in 1925.

For years, there was talk about the Boston Hills Country Club closing and some new development moving in. But it didn't actually close until October 2006, clearing the way for the property's next life.

New owner Boston Hills Property Investment LLC of Broadview Heights initially focused on housing and retail. A proposal called for 639 housing units, including apartments and cluster housing, on part of the property and retail outlets, including a large box store, on another portion.

But the land was zoned residential and Boston Heights zoning barred stores larger than 50,000 square feet. So village leaders rezoned the property last year to allow for commercial development and larger stores.

The issue caused an uproar in the community, with many residents complaining that they had moved into Boston Heights to escape shopping centers and overdevelopment.

Residents, including Scott Foss, then a regular homeowner and now a council member, launched a petition drive for a referendum to overturn council's decision. In November, voters shot down the rezoning and big-box store proposal, sending a clear message to council: no retail development.

In response, Boston Hills Property Investment sued the village.

The two sides reached a settlement last month and council held an emergency meeting at 7:30 on a Friday night to approve the deal. Council later learned it goofed in some of the language and held a special meeting at 9:30 p.m. on Mother's Day to amend the legislation.

Some residents have questioned the meeting times, claiming they were a way to discourage citizen participation.

''The thing that really upsets me,'' Fenn said, ''is that if they want to do it, fine, and they have the authority to do it, fine, but tell us about it.''

Village officials said they have been open about the project — as much as they can be with a pending lawsuit.

And those meetings? That's when everyone could get together on short notice, they said.

''Nobody on council or elected members of the village have been secretive,'' Foss said.

The details

For now, developer Boston Hills Property Investment has an agreement with the village to build on 100 of its 160 acres.

No housing this time, just retail and office buildings, that possible hospital, and a lot of green space.

The deal allows for a two-story 215,000-square-foot store and a single-story 125,000-square-foot store, in addition to other stores and office buildings.

If a deal can be negotiated, the hospital could be up to 450,000 square feet and would replace the smaller of the two big-box stores. (The community is in competition for the hospital with a joint proposal by Cuyahoga Falls, Hudson and Stow.)

Which stores will move in remains a mystery. An attorney for the developer pointed to the legal agreement when questioned about the plans. The deal doesn't identify the possible stores.

Village officials have heard that the larger retailers will be department stores similar to Dillard's or J.C. Penney.

The agreement requires that 60 acres remain green space and includes a buffer between the complex and residential areas — both conditions that should appease some residents, village leaders said. The deal was the best possible and outweighed the risk of losing a multimillion-dollar court battle, they said.

''It's been a struggle,'' Councilman Kevin Lightner said about the process. ''I'm not crazy about it being developed. But in light of everything that's transpired, I think the solution we have come to is probably the closest to a win-win that we could come to.

''Would I prefer to see it stay a golf course? Sure. Is that realistic? No way.''

The village had no way to prevent the development, short of buying the property itself, Mayor Bill Goncy said. And, he added, the village didn't have the money.

Taxpayer lawsuit

The settlement, though, hasn't been the end of the fight.

Earlier this month, resident Edward Kuchar Sr., a businessman who owns Plastic Process Equipment in Macedonia, filed a taxpayer lawsuit against the village.

''I don't want to be in a lawsuit,'' he said. ''I don't want to beat our village up.''

 

But he said he cannot understand the audacity of council to defy the vote of the people. He added that he and others aren't against retail development in the village.

''We're not,'' said Kuchar, who moved into the village eight years ago. ''We're for it where it is zoned in the community.''

He would rather see homes with larger lots on the property, because it's zoned residential.

''The major complaint is the process here, the way [council has] ramrodded this through,'' his attorney, Kenneth Fisher, said. ''This whole thing was done with almost no concern with the village or its residents.''

For example, no traffic or environmental studies were done before the agreement was made, he said.

He and Kuchar said they don't buy the argument that the village would lose the lawsuit filed by the developer.

''The village gave in to the developer, and why, I don't know,'' Fisher said.

Goncy and other village officials said it's been difficult trying to get some residents to understand that the choice piece of property will be developed someday.

And while a majority of residents opposed the project for the golf course last fall at the voting booth, the mood has changed since the developer's lawsuit, they said.

Many residents are now supportive and do not want to see the village possibly lose millions in a legal fight, they said.

''In some respects, [the project] will change the face of the village,'' Foss said. ''We will have a little bit more retail development. What we've tried to do is limit that impact on the residents.''

 

Rick Armon can be reached at 330-996-3569 or rarmon@thebeaconjournal.com.

 

BOSTON HEIGHTS: For more than 10 years, developers have salivated over the possibility of bringing a large retail complex to this small village.

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