Solon council OKs revised site plan for addition to senior housing complex – cleveland.com

SOLON, Ohio — City Council has approved a revised site plan for an addition to Vitalia Active Adult Community at Solon.

Vitalia, located at 6050 Kruse Drive, offers independent living, assisted living and memory care units. It was developed by Solon-based Omni Senior Living.

The 11,934-square-foot expansion, located adjacent to the existing Omni Senior Living corporate office at 33095 Bainbridge Road, will house an additional 30 residential units.

On Monday (Feb. 7), council approved the site plan, 6-1, along with nine variances that were recommended for approval by the city’s Planning Commission.

The commission had recommended approval of the project contingent upon both the applicant’s agreement with the site plan submitted by the city’s planning department indicating the location of a potential 10-foot-wide trail and upon compliance with directives from the city’s engineering department.

Vice Mayor and Ward 5 Councilwoman Nancy Meany cast the dissenting vote on the site plan and also voted “no” on a front-yard setback variance.

Meany noted that the project was originally brought before council in October 2020. She voted “no” on that site plan, as well, when council approved it 6-1.

“My issue with this — and it’s the same ongoing issue — is I think it’s an overdevelopment of the site,” she said. “I think trying to squeeze another building there is just too much.”

Meany said this proposed addition is a different plan than what Omni submitted, and council approved, in October 2020.

“The original building was going to go kind of parallel to where the Omni headquarters is,” she said. “Now it’s more horizontal, and that even makes me a little more concerned.”

Meany said she was “super supportive” of the original construction of the senior housing complex, which opened in September 2020.

“I think it filled a need so much in the city, giving an absolutely beautiful place for seniors to go to and to reside,” she said. “I’m thrilled that this has been really successful.

“But I just feel like it’s too much on this site.”

Gary Biales, vice president of development for Omni Senior Living, submitted an application to the city in December for the revised addition, including site and parking lot modifications.

Ward 3 Councilman Jeremy Zelwin asked Biales what has changed from the original site plan.

“I changed the location of the building,” Biales said.

Biales then explained by showing an architectural rendering of the previously approved plan, compared to one of the revised plan.

“The (original) addition was the same 30 units — same height, same architecture,” he said. “But there was a second-story walkway.

“The reason it was second story is the fire department requires access all year-round. This made it very difficult. A portion of this was open air, and we didn’t like that. So we came back and changed it.”

The revised plan — with the same square footage as the previous one — includes a hallway down the middle that connects to the existing building, Biales said.

“So there’s no walking outdoors,” he said. “That’s the difference.”

Zelwin asked, “What about the number of parking spots vs. the original plan?”

“Even though this got reconfigured, we actually added spaces from our original plan,” Biales said.

Zelwin then asked Biales why Omni didn’t break ground earlier, after council approved the original plan 16 months ago.

“I don’t want to approve this and then wait another year,” Zelwin said. “We don’t want to keep on approving these variances and going forward with it and then you not fulfilling your promise.”

Biales said part of the reason for the delay was the coronavirus pandemic.

“It was not a good time to break ground, get loans and everything else,” he said. “And while we were in that period of time, we kept analyzing this and saying, ‘It’s just too far for people to have to walk in an open space.’

“It just didn’t make sense in a lot of cases. This building now shows it’s just an extension of our existing building.”

As for Omni’s timeline, Biales said its goal is to start site work in May, then begin construction in August.

“So we’re looking at opening in April of next year,” he said.

Omni has developed seven other Vitalia senior living communities in the Cleveland/Akron area, according to its website, omniseniorliving.com.

Wage schedules amended

In other action, council amended an ordinance approved in December that established wage schedules and salary increases of up to 2 percent this year for full-time and part-time employees not covered by a collective bargaining agreement.

The amended ordinance provides these employees with a salary increase of up to 2.25 percent — the same level that council approved for employees covered by the collective bargaining agreement. The increase is retroactive to Jan. 1.

“This is to bring our non-union employees to getting the same wage increases that our CBA employees receive,” Meany said.

Zelwin noted that the impact of this .25 percent increase to the city’s general fund budget will be $50,000 this year.

“We believe that we can absorb this, or use a portion of the budget contingency fund to pay for the wage increases to align with the union contracts,” he said.

Council also approved a collective bargaining agreement with the Ohio Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association for the city’s correction officers.

The three-year contract is effective through Dec. 31, 2024. The union agreed to an “equitable adjustment” in salary this year and salary increases of 2.25 percent next year and 2.5 percent in 2024.

It’s similar to the three-year contracts that council approved Jan. 18 with the police department’s sergeants, lieutenants and patrol officers.

Read more from the Chagrin Solon Sun.