Ross Board Rejects Rezoning Request

The Ross Township Board of Commissioners voted unanimously Monday against rezoning a 1.78-acre corner tract at 628 Perry Highway and 10 Rochester Road from an R-1 residential district to a C-3 commercial district.

The C-3 district is the township's most restrictive commercial option. The vote upholds the recommendation of the planning commission, which also voted, 4-3, against the rezoning request at its May 26 meeting. 

Orion Development, a real estate development and construction company based in Weirton, WV, sought to develop the lot for a single retail tenant that would be “clean, highly convenient and low-impact," Ken Hrabar, a principal of the firm, told the planning commission.

Hrabar declined to disclose the company's plans for the property or the type of store that might be built. Orion Development specializes in building box-store pharmacies, according to its website.

The developer faced opposition from neighboring property owners who informally organized and attended planning commission and township board meetings to express concerns about damaging the character of the area and increased traffic. 

Monday's meeting drew the largest turnout to date, with around two dozen people filling the township board room. 

"We have a large corridor of commercial areas on McKnight Road," said Joan O'Brien, who said she lives close to the property. "It’s important for the quality of life in Ross Township to keep residential and commercial areas separate."

Michael Kutzer, another neighboring property owner, compared the area to a historic district. 

"The houses sell in days. That's something to be proud of," he said. 

Attorney Bill Sittig, speaking on behalf of Orion Development, argued that the property historically has been used for commercial purposes and its owners should be permitted to continue to use it in such a way. 

"For all these years of being R-1, it's not R-1," he said. "Don't be so smug to say it's R-1. It's not a single-family corner. "

The corner lot has been abandoned for at least three years, according to the company's application filed May 5 with the Ross Township Planning Department. It houses two structures, a building once used as a physican's office and a smaller residential building that served as the doctor's home. 

One of its owners, Pamela Eidson, attended Monday's meeting, but remained silent throughout most of the proceeding. She announced her presence only in response to a question from one of the neighboring property owners. She did not testify before the commissioners. 

In an interview after the meeting, Eidson said the property has been in her family for 60 years, but that it became tied up in legal wrangling among the family members after her aunt, the doctor, died years ago. Care of the property suffered as a result, she said. 

"It's a typical Italian family, the feuding," she said. 

The family deeded the property to her and her daughter, Jessica, in 2006. Formerly of Arlington, VA, Eidson said she moved back in March and has been living in the house on the property since then. She said she does not intend to stay, and she hopes to sell the property. 

"Maybe now that I'm here, people would be willing to work with me," she said. 

She is working with Coldwell Banker broker John Wills, who has been handling the development deal with Hrabar for about a year. As to what she plans to do next, Eidson said she's not sure. 

"I'll have to see what [Hrabar] wants to do, and see what my broker advises," she said.