UH Elyria splits off McKinley school for future sale

University Hospitals Elyria Medical Center is splitting off the property of the former McKinley School with the intention of selling it for future development. On Tuesday, the Elyria Planning Commission approved a lot split for the property, separating the land behind the school building that contains the hospital's helicopter landing pad from the rest of the parcel. It also approved a pair of variances and an easement needed to make the move possible. Gordon Gantt, legal counsel for UH Elyria, said that the hospital plans to incorporate the new parcel containing the helicopter pad into the property of the hospital, and eventually to sell off the McKinley building. Gantt did not disclose any details about who the hospital may plan to sell the property to, and City Planner Chris Schoenig said after the meeting that he had not heard any official plans about prospective end users. Shortly after McKinley closed to students in 2021, it was acquired by the hospital system. The property was transferred from the school to the city, then to the Elyria Community Improvement Corporation and finally to UH at no cost. Last year, the hospital constructed a new helicopter landing pad behind the school on the property to replace its existing helipad on the roof of UH Elyria. The lot split required several approvals from the Planning Commission, largely because of issues created by splitting the helipad off. Under Elyria's code, a helipad is considered an accessory use, and once the property is split off it will leave the helipad on a parcel with no principal use, requiring a variance. An additional variance was needed because the split would also leave the helipad just 4 feet and 8 inches from the new lot line created by the split, because it is less than the required 6 feet from the lot line. Once the helipad parcel is added into the larger UH parcel at 630 East River St., it will again be on a lot with a principal use — the hospital — so the accessory use variance would no longer be necessary. In the meeting, Schoenig said that the split would still leave the helicopter landing pad quite close to the McKinley school, but that was not an issue that was before Council. "It is close, I did denote that there may be concerns from the building code at a later time due to the noise from this helipad for the end user, whatever it may be, for the McKinley school, but of course that being outside of the scope of the zoning code, no other concerns from staff," he said. The variances were heard in a public hearing at Tuesday's meeting, and one member of the public did speak as an opponent of the requests. Whitney Oliver, of University Avenue, said that members of the neighborhood, particularly those who lived next to the hospital and McKinley properties, had concerns over the lack of information they had received about the future of the site, and about helicopter noise. "For the residents who are on the properties abutting this whole thing, there is concern regarding what specific lot lines this reduction from the 6 feet to the 4 (feet 8 inches) is pertaining to," Oliver said. "There are a lot of houses that back up to those fields and they have already changed the helicopter routes to fly directly over the houses, so it is just becoming kind of apparent that this is going to be a bigger issue, I think, unless people get more information." The commission approved the variances, and Schoenig said they do not require additional approval from council as a whole. The Planning Commission also approved the split itself, separating the land into a 5.13 acre lot containing the McKinley School, its parking lot and almost all of the former lot's frontage on East River Street, and a 3.5 acre lot that contains the helipad and a small hospital parking lot. The helipad lot contains the eastern portion of the former parcel and a narrow strip on the north running along the width of the hospital to East River Street. Gantt said that the hospital may eventually add more parking to the smaller lot, the one it plans to incorporate into the hospital property proper, but plans no other development there. "The forward portion we are splitting off in contemplation of a potential sale of that building for further development," Gantt said. Storm sewers run under the property of the newly formed lot, so Schoening recommended that the split be approved on the condition that UH provide an easement guaranteeing the city access to those storm sewers. "We understand the need for easements and are supportive of granting those, so, yes, we will be doing that," Gantt said. Approval of that easement is the only measure from Tuesday's meeting that needs to go before City Council for final approval, Schoenig said. The variances and the split itself were both approved by the commission Tuesday, and do not require Council votes. When Elyria enacts its new zoning code on May 1, the newly created McKinley parcel will be zoned as a commercial district, allowing for some multi-family residential or mixed use development. "No information is available at this time of what the end user is there," Schoenig said. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.