Auroraadvocate.com - City planners recommend no golf club rezoning

by Ken Lahmers

Editor

Aurora -- The planning-zoning-building department has recommended the planning commission deny a request to send a rezoning request for the Aurora Golf Club property to Council.

At their Jan. 20 meeting, the commission delayed a vote on the request until it has an opportunity to peruse information turned in at the last minute by Aurora Recreation LLC.

The latter is seeking to rezone the 206-acre property off New Hudson Road and Trails End from R-2 residential to R-4 residential and C-1 commercial.

Once the planning panelists vote on a recommendation, the matter goes to City Council, which can authorize the rezoning request to go on a future ballot.

In recommending disapproval, the city's staff wrote: "The proposed rezoning is incompatible with existing city policy, zoning land use plans and environmental aspects of the property."

Aurora Recreation LLC has proposed building 224 single-family homes and 52 attached single-family homes, plus 33,000 square feet of commercial structures.

The golf course, which has existed for more than 80 years, was a private club until members sold it to Aurora Recreation LLC, which then opened it last year to the public.

IN 2009, Council rejected buying the course to preserve it as green space because members believed the purchase would put the city into a debt situation.

Planning-Zoning-Building Director Rich Wehrenberg said the current zoning allows 0.33 dwelling units to be built on the property (about 70 units total), whereas the rezoning would allow 2.5 units.

He said rezoning to R-4 could permit up to 500 units to be built, but Aurora Recreation is proposing only 276 because of the sensitive environmental nature of the property.

The existing zoning would require the development of 3-acre lots with a minimum home size of 2,200 square feet.

At the meeting, John Lateulere, a land project manager with Atwell-Hicks LLC, said the property owner would be willing to consider rezoning to R-3, which is less dense than R-4.

"R-3 would be more compatible with the surrounding uses to the west and south and would serve as a logical extension of the existing R-3 zone to the west," Lateulere said.

He added the current proposal represents a future real estate tax base of at least $68 million and a residents income/earnings base of $16.5 million.

"It represents a future revenue stream three times that of the existing zoning," he said. "And it would still provide the ability for the city to realize the addition of at least 80 acres of open space protected in perpetuity."

THE STAFF report cited stormwater, traffic and environmental concerns in its recommendation to disapprove, including the fact the Aurora branch of the Chagrin River lies just east of the property.

"You need to consider the impact of such a development on the schools and traffic patterns," Ward 4 Councilman George Horvat, who spoke from the audience, told the panel.

Resident George Mazzaro said the city staff's analysis of the rezoning proposal "reflects what the citizens feel about this property. I believe if it goes to the ballot, voters will turn it down."

David Benjamin, a homeowner in the adjacent Club neighborhood, urged the commission not to make a recommendation at the meeting, saying further citizen input is needed.

Resident George Heisler noted there is another alternative -- keeping the golf course and existing zoning, building the permitted 70 homes around it.

Lateulere said that possibility was considered by a previous owner of the property and found to be "unfeasible."

The panel will discuss the issue further at its Feb. 3 meeting at 7 p.m. in Town Hall, and a vote might be taken. Chairman Roy Shafer said input from residents is welcome.

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