RICHMOND HEIGHTS, Ohio -- City Council will hold public hearings on important issues facing the city, three in all -- starting at 7 p.m. Feb. 27.
One of the hearings held on that Monday will pertain to changing permitted uses now spelled out in the city code to allow for medical marijuana business to be conducted in the city, in the form of cultivation, processing and dispensing.
On Feb. 8, the Richmond Heights Planning Commission gave its recommendation to council to approve the changes.
Council recently lifted a moratorium on medical marijuana businesses operating in Richmond Heights, believing the business will be a means to bring to the city increased revenue.
Another hearing will be devoted to alternative uses for Richmond Town Square mall. With Sears preparing to close at the mall in March, and with Macy's having closed there in 2015, city leaders are looking to widen the scope of businesses that can operate on the mall property, again as a means to bring added revenue.
Building Commissioner Philip Seyboldt, at last week's Planning Commission meeting, told of uses now prohibited that he recommended be permitted at the mall property, such as recreational (theaters, assembly and meeting halls, and bowling alleys, among others); day care center; restaurants with a drive-through; schools; data processing; laboratories; law, engineering and sales offices; assembling, packaging and warehousing; new and used vehicle sales; and research facilities.
Again, the Planning Commission recommended passage to council.
The third public hearing also has to do with the mall, as well as other properties where a business may be closing.
Seyboldt has asked council to pass legislation that would require the outdoor areas, including parking lots, of vacant commercial buildings to be lit when it is dark outside.
The legislation would also require that the owners of buildings must submit an exterior lighting plan to the building commissioner at least 10 days prior to the commercial building being vacated.
"The closing of Sears precipitated this," Seyboldt told the Planning Commission. "We don't know if Sears intends to shut off its parking lot lights.
"We don't want the lot lit up all night like a Roman candle," he said. "But this says they have to submit a plan to the building department. They can't leave the lot dark."
The legislation would also require the interior entrance way and key points of the interior of a building to also be illuminated so that patrolling police can see if anything is taking place inside.
All three issues require a public hearing in order to be voted upon.
Also in Richmond Heights:
-- Mayor David Roche, at Tuesday's City Council meeting, read key parts of his state-of-the-city address. In the address, Roche recapped many of the activities that took place in Richmond Heights in 2016.
The full text of the address can be read on the city's website, richmondheightsohio.org.
-- Council approved on Tuesday by a 7-0 vote a resolution declaring the property at 4875 Geraldine Road a public nuisance, and directed that the home there be demolished.
Economic Development Director Christel Best said that the vacant home, owned by Bank of America, will be torn down sometime in the spring or summer. Cuyahoga County will pay for the demolition and place a lien on the property to attempt to recoup the cost.
-- Council President Eloise Henry, who chairs the city's Centennial Celebration Planning Committee, said residents are encouraged to attend and participate in the next meeting, to be held at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 18 in the caucus room of city hall, 26789 Highland Road.
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