POLAND ZONING Board OKs variance for Walgreens

Village council wants the final say on whether Walgreens comes to Poland.
By JOHN W. GOODWIN JR.
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
POLAND -- The village zoning appeals board has approved a variance for a major drugstore chain hoping to relocate here, but other obstacles may still block the store's plans to open.
Earlier this year, Walgreens submitted plans to the village planning commission for a building at McKinley Way (U.S. Route 224) and North Main Street (state Route 170). The area is home to a pet grooming store, a coin-operated laundry and a pizza shop.
The area is zoned village center commercial with a 4,000-square-foot maximum for retail businesses. Walgreens wants to put up a building nearly four times the maximum square footage. To put the store at that site, Walgreens would need a variance from the zoning board of appeals or a zone change on the property.
Robert Limmer, appeals board member, said the commission informed the store's representatives that the best route to go would be a change in the area's zoning because of the large difference in square footage. A zone change would have to be approved by village council.
"When we think of a variance, we think of 100 feet there or 50 feet here, not something that is going to change the face of the village as this certainly will," Limmer said.
Walgreens, however, chose to request a variance for the proposed building and presented its case to the zoning appeals board in earlier this month. The appeals board, in a 4-1 vote, approved the variance request.
Council takes initiative
Since village council normally has no input in variance requests, the appeals board approval should have settled the matter and allowed Walgreens to begin building.
Village council, however, enacted legislation to change that.
Limmer, who also is a council member, said council, one day before Walgreens made its case to the appeals board, passed an emergency ordinance stating that any decision made by the zoning appeals board in regard to Walgreens would have to be approved by council.
He said council realized that if the appeals board approved the Walgreens variance, council would have no say in the store coming to the village. Several council members have spoken out against the store opening.
"I feel this is an initial step to break the small village feel we are trying to preserve," Limmer said. "There is no reason why someone else couldn't come in and say we have done it [allowed a big-box store] once and they want the same treatment."
Mark Gribben of the Ohio Attorney General's office would not comment directly about the Walgreens situation, but said ordinances tailored to specific businesses have a hard time standing up in court.
"When you try to restrict a specific business or type of business, you are going to have trouble," Gribben added.
A hearing before council in the matter has been scheduled for Tuesday at village hall.
jgoodwin@vindy.com