CONNEAUT – As Luarinda Ritchey continues to rehabilitate the old St. Mary’s School, more opportunities for how different sections of the building can be used are being explored.
Most recently, Ritchey was presented with the opportunity to add a breakfast café that was displaced to the kitchen and cafeteria.
For that to be a possibility, though, Ritchey needed to ask the Planning and Zoning Board to rezone the neighborhood.
Ritchey officially made her request for the building at 471 Madison St. to be rezoned from an R-4 to a B-3 district at a meeting on Thursday, Jan. 15.
The request did not indicate the purpose for the change, though some board members were curious.
“We’re not considering what they’re doing with it,” City of Conneaut Planning and Zoning Manager Jennifer Hoover said. “They haven’t applied to do anything with it; they just want it rezoned so they can do something with it.”
Ritchey purchased the building in 2021 with the purpose of giving her clients a space outside of their homes during the COVID -19 pandemic. She uses the classrooms on the first floor of the building for that purpose.
“My original plan when I bought the property, it was during the COVID pandemic, and I already had an office and I needed more space, so I was looking to build or to do something, but then the school came up,” Ritchey said. “I purchased it because my individuals, they couldn’t go to Snap Fitness anymore. They couldn’t go to Planet Fitness. I just took all of our gym equipment and people donated some so then we could have people still coming and doing that. Originally, I bought the building so that my individuals could still have some freedom during the pandemic.”
Renovation work has been done and continues to be done to rehabilitate the building so more of it can be used.
“Inside, I have offices and I service adults and children with developmental disabilities,” Ritchey said. “That’s part of the classroom area.”
“We’ve rehabbed a lot of things, especially the roof was a problem,” Ritchey continued. “(We renovated) all of the bathrooms. There’s 10 brand new toilets in there. We did all the electrical in the kitchen and the roof panels. There’s a lot.”
The request for rezoning would allow a weekend breakfast café to take up residence in the kitchen and cafeteria.
“There was a breakfast place that was down at Franco’s Pizzeria and Franco’s switched hands, so (the breakfast business owner) would like to use the cafeteria to have a breakfast cafe in the cafeteria,” Ritchey said. “We’ve updated all of the electric, everything that we needed to do as far as going forward for that. Our plan is initially to put that restaurant in the cafeteria.”
The R-4 designation for a zoning district permits single-family dwellings, two-family dwellings, multi-family dwellings, churches, schools and accessory uses for poultry and fowl. It also permits daycare centers, golf courses, rest homes, nursing homes, hospitals, resource and mineral extraction, home occupations, short-term rentals, bed and breakfasts and farm animals.
There are a number of businesses on Route 20 in that neighborhood.
The initial plan is for the breakfast café to be open only on weekends.
Hoover suggested Ritchey make the request to have the district rezoned as B-3 because the area across the street is also zoned B-3.
A B-3 zoning district allows personal and business services and general retail trade for persons living in the community and surrounding area, primarily passenger vehicles and only those trucks and commercial vehicles required for stocking and delivery of retail goods.
There was a question as to whether or not the district was already zoned for mixed use. The section of Route 20 that runs through that portion of the city is already zoned for mixed use.
“That’s not the same thing with the way that those are mixed residential,” Planning and Zoning Board President Becky Gaugh said. “It means that it could be in the same property, but they could be next to each other, like that whole Route 20 area there is so that you can have interspersed occupation and businesses at the same time. That’s why I was wondering why it wasn’t already (zoned for mixed use).”
Board member Anna Kauffman said the difference in zoning might be because the St. Mary’s building is not on Route 20, but Madison Street.
Kauffman asked if Ritchey owned the parking lot adjacent to the building.
“I’m wondering if we change the zoning and then they have business there, if it’ll affect the neighborhood with the influx of cars, but they have ample amount of parking for customers,” she said.
Ritchey does not intend to file for a liquor permit for the property in the future, but there are plans to rent the gymnasium out for events such as wedding receptions and birthday parties.
There are stipulations as to what the building cannot be used for, though, that date back to the original sale of the property.
“I do want to mention, there’s a rider that comes with our deed,” Ritchey said. “Anything that would fall not under Catholicism could not be put in that building. That was the Diocese (who made that the stipulations). It will follow (the property) for the life of the property. There couldn’t be tattoo parlors or bars, or anything like that.”
The second floor of the building is still being renovated, but the intent is to make it office space that can be rented.
“Once we change the zoning, no matter what the short-term plans are, it opens up to future other changes in the plan,” Zoning Board member Jennifer Simpson said. “That’s the whole thing. We’re not just changing it for one owner, it affects what can be put there in the future.”
Gaugh stated the board had probably asked questions it did not need to ask, but that it just liked to know what was going on.
“I don’t have a problem with (approving the rezoning of the district),” Gaugh said.
The board voted to approve the zoning change with no notes, which means it will now be sent to city council for final approval.
“There’ll be an ordinance before council at the next regularly scheduled meeting on the 26th of January,” Hoover said. “I don’t know if they need you or want you present there, I can’t recall if they typically do that. If I find out and they do, I’ll let you guys know. That’s the next step. Once Council reviews and if they approve the ordinance, then you’ll be rezoned.”
Support authors and subscribe to content
This is premium stuff. Subscribe to read the entire article.
