Zoning requests will return to council

About 20 opponents and supporters of a proposed South 37th Street development attended the July 15 Richmond Common Council meeting, but they did not have a chance to speak.

An ordinance to rezone 80 acres south of Backmeyer Road between South 37th Street and Garwood Road for a planned unit development was presented to council and referred to the Richmond Advisory Plan Commission. The plan commission will conduct a public hearing during its 5:30 p.m. July 24 meeting.

This is a second version of the Smith Hill development after council denied the original zoning request. That proposal included 178 single-family homes, up to 220 apartment units and the possibility of an on-site child care facility. The new proposal still includes 178 homes; however, it replaces the apartments with 110 owner-occupied townhomes and eliminates the possibility for the child care facility, according to Dustin Purvis, the city’s planning director.

11th Street Development LLC would prepare home sites with infrastructure, then builders would construct and sell the four styles of homes. Of those, only the 14 largest home sites fit the land’s current medium-density, single-family zoning.

Plan commission recommended approval of the original development proposal. Whatever plan commission decides after the July 24 public hearing, the ordinance will return to common council for a final decision.

Council also referred a zoning request by Uranus 3 Land LLC to the plan commission meeting. The former New Creations land at 6400 National Road E. is zoned institutional, and the Uranus LLC wants general commercial zoning to open a Uranus Fudge Factory general store.

Purvis said the LLC also plans to expand on the site.

More information about the Smith Hill and Uranus requests is available on the city’s zoning portal at experience.arcgis.com/experience/86438372b4c84e23bc36976e364d8f26/.

TIF spending

A resolution that expands eligible tax increment finance district spending to include police and fire capital or operational expenses passed council 5-3. 

During its June meeting, the plan commission heard and approved a resolution that originated with the Richmond Redevelopment Commission. The resolution will now return to the redevelopment commission for an Aug. 21 public hearing.

Richmond has four TIF districts that last for 25 years: Johns Manville that expires in October 2036, downtown and Midwest Industrial Park that ends in January 2040, Heartland for the Blue Buffalo facility that concludes in May 2041 and a new district for the Sixth and Main apartment project that lasts until January 2049.

Council member Jerry Purcell said a public safety tax would be a cleaner way to increase police and fire funding, rather than utilizing TIF funds when faced with redevelopment projects such as downtown infrastructure.

Purcell, Doug Goss and Lucinda Wright voted against the resolution.

RFD merit change

Council’s public safety committee favors postponing creation of a merit commission to hire, fire and discipline Richmond Fire Department members, according to council member Jane Bumbalough.

Chris Morris, the vice president of the fire department’s union, said RFD members wanted to postpone the change from a seniority-based system to the merit system until 2025 because the union is this year negotiating a new contract. After an initial straw poll in favor of the merit commission, union members voted 54-19 to postpone, Morris said, wanting to focus next year on such a massive change to operations.

The city’s Board of Public Works and Safety currently approves hiring, firing and discipline of RFD members, but the state has mandated merit commissions be implemented by Jan. 1, 2025.

A.J. Sickmann, the city attorney, said that council would need to reject an ordinance presented during May that would create the merit commission or the commission would be automatically implemented.

Other business

• South Service Drive was vacated by a 8-0 vote. The alley just south of the former Elder-Beerman building will be joined with the building and parking lot into one parcel for the project that plans 150 market-rate apartments.
• Council unanimously approved new stormwater management fees for developers. The ordinance had previously been presented, and there were no speakers during the public hearing.
• Pat Smoker, the superintendent of Richmond Sanitary District, received unanimous permission to pursue a $5,000 grant from the Wayne County Foundation for education and outreach when its billing office moves to 25 N. Seventh St.