Developer resubmits proposal

Changes in the plan are the suggestions of residents, the developer said.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- A developer will try again to pass a plan that angered residents who already bought homes in his subdivision.
Chris Abraham of TC Quality Homes in Canfield has made changes to the plan that met opposition in December, when residents complained about a Planned Unit Development being built with no advance notice in the middle of their larger lots in Westbury Park off Gibson Road.
Saying they were sold on the subdivision as it was presented to them before they bought their homes, they asked the township zoning board of appeals to recommend denial of a zone change from agricultural to PUD so the plan could go forward.
The appeals board did so, unanimously, at a meeting Dec. 8. Township trustees were to have the final say over the zone change. The morning of the trustees' meeting Dec. 19, the developer withdrew his plan for consideration.
A few changes
Township zoning inspector Dave Morrison said Tuesday that Abraham has resubmitted the proposal, but that it is "basically the same plan."
Morrison said the plan now includes one more entry from Gibson Road into a condo PUD in the far right corner of the development. It includes more park space, and one park that had been cut back is now restored to its original size.
The plan now includes a pool and a clubhouse in the bottom left corner of the development.
But the middle of the development is still full of single-family homes on smaller lots. Residents said in December that they don't want those homes so close to their properties.
Morrison said he isn't sure, also, whether the trustees will accept a proposal for public rather than private streets inside the new portion.
Abraham said Monday that the changes he made were suggestions given at meetings he's had with residents.
He said the homes being proposed in the center, 91 "village lots," are no smaller than many homes that are there now. Their square footage will be 2,000 to 2,800, he said, and they will be priced from $260,000 to the mid-$300,000s.
The rest of the development includes "estate" and "exclusive" lots with a square footage of 2,400 to 3,200. They are priced from $230,000 to the mid-$400,000s, Abraham said, with most from $275,000 to $320,000.
The PUD on the right includes "cottages," or condos, priced in the $200,000s, according to TC Quality literature.
Abraham said the back yards of the new homes will be the same size or even larger than the yards of the estate lots. He said, though, that the front yards are scaled back and garages are behind the houses so that "architecture will dominate the streetscape."
He will present his plan at a township zoning commission workshop March 2 and will make a formal presentation before the panel March 9. No official action takes place at a workshop meeting.