McDonald’s warehouse zoning opposed

The warehouse in Jackson Township would serve 488 McDonald’s restaurants in the region.

By Jeanne Starmack

NORTH JACKSON — The Jackson Township Zoning Commission will recommend that township trustees not rezone 70 acres to accommodate a 150,000-square-foot warehouse.

After a contentious public hearing in which neighbors of the property at South Bailey and Blott roads said they moved to Jackson Township because they believed its rural atmosphere would be protected by strong zoning laws, the commission voted 4-1 not to approve a change from R-1 residential to I-2 Industrial.

The commission is advisory, and the trustees will make the final decision at their meeting Oct. 20.

The change would allow a warehouse distribution center that would be built by a development company and leased to Anderson-DuBose Co. of Solon, the exclusive distributor for McDonald’s Corp. in this region. It would serve 488 McDonald’s restaurants in Ohio and Pennsylvania and 39 Chipotle restaurants.

The warehouse would be an attractive building costing upward of $9 million, said Debbie Harold of IRG GA Commerce, the property developer that would lease the building.

Harold said the warehouse would keep 144 existing jobs in Ohio. Sites in Pennsylvania are being considered too, she said, but the property makes “logistic sense.” A railroad line to the south of the property makes it ideal also, she and representatives of Anderson-DuBose said.

But neighbors pointed out that the jobs would be for transplants, not township residents.

When Harold said that the warehouse would cause other businesses to grow around it, neighbors again said that isn’t what they want in their community.

Neighbors said they didn’t want the 50 trucks a day that are expected to visit the warehouse, and they don’t want to see their property values decline.

“You don’t address the traffic on Bailey Road,” said Charles Prachick, who lives there.

“We have two great big horse farms,” he said. “I’m right in the middle. We love being agricultural.”

Other residents said it isn’t fair that the warehouse would be given a tax abatement.

“You aren’t paying your fair share,” said Rod Sudimak of Blott Road. He suggested the company find a piece of land in the township that’s already zoned industrial, a sentiment echoed by many of the residents at the meeting.

“I called a real-estate agent familiar with my home,” said Nancy Booth of South Bailey Road. “She said it would devalue my home by up to 50 percent if we let this monstrosity be built.”

“You want to destroy what we’ve built and what our neighbors have built,” she continued. “I moved here because I was assured the property was agricultural and residential.”

Others questioned whether the change would conform to the township’s land-use plan.

Mel Cadle, who owns the property with his son, Ron, said the land was originally industrial. The Cadles entered into a land contract for the property three years ago.

Ron Friend, who said he works for Ron Cadle and spoke on behalf of the Cadle families, told the neighbors that the land plan is “out of whack.”

“Some of you live on or abut industrial land,” he said.

Voting against the motion to recommend disapproval of the zone change was commission member Art Weaver, who said he was thinking of the jobs the warehouse would bring.

“I have to represent the whole community, not just the people on Bailey Road,” he said.

“Art, if they spot-zone here, what’s to stop it by you?” Prachick said.

After the vote, Mel Cadle said he doesn’t believe the trustees will go against the commission’s recommendation and approve the zone change.

“The squeaky wheel gets the grease,” he said.