North Ridgeville adds land to proposed business park property

North Ridgeville is seeking to rezone a recently acquired property to be added to its proposed future business park. On Monday, North Ridgeville City Council referred a proposal to the Planning Commission to rezone a parcel on state Route 83, or Avon Belden Road, from residential to light industrial. The land would then be added to a larger parcel at 8371 Avon Belden Road that the city has already rezoned. The city hopes to turn the combined 57-acre property into a business park. North Ridgeville Mayor Kevin Corcoran said that the city acquired the larger property for $1.2 million more than a year ago after officials learned that a residential developer was eyeing the land. "We knew that the property was being looked at by some residential developers, and we are looking to balance out our residential and business properties," Corcoran said Tuesday. "We had an opportunity to engage with the owner, tell them we were interested in purchasing it and, luckily, they were interested in selling it to us. So we were able to take a piece off the board, essentially, that could have been used for residential." Controlling residential development and encouraging more industrial and business development was a goal laid out in North Ridgeville's city master plan, and Corcoran said the proposed North Ridgeville business park works toward that goal. A similar opportunity arose this year with a smaller property adjacent to the original, and Corcoran said the city acquired it and plans to add it to the eventual business park. The city is in the process of extending utilities to the property, and once that is complete, Corcoran said the city would begin the process of finding businesses to take up residence there. He said that the city is flexible as to what the property could look like, being open to either selling it to a developer that will build it out and rent to business tenants, or finding tenants itself as a city. "With us controlling the property, it gives us a lot more flexibility with potential businesses that are interested in relocating here," Corcoran said. "We can be a little picky, if we want to be, and we will do our best to bring in the business that would have the best economic impact on the community." In a similar vein, Corcoran said the city is open to selling the property to one large business if the right one is interested, or in dividing the property up to make room for multiple companies. "We are still in the development stage, and we haven't gotten that far," Corcoran said. "It depends on who we start talking to and what their plans are." An overabundance of residential development at the expense of other development has been a common complaint among North Ridgeville residents and officials in recent years, and Corcoran said the business park proposal was one way to address that. He said that the city would be interested in buying other properties with a similar idea if the opportunities present themselves. The Planning Commission is next scheduled to meet on April 14. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.