by Steve Wiandt
Reporter
Cuyahoga Falls -- A developer may get the green light on his proposed subdivision on Dec. 8 when City Council votes on the final plan of Bath Creek Estates.
Council's planning and zoning committee agreed on Dec. 1 to bring out for a vote legislation recommended by the city Planning Commission. Developer Danny Karam of Karam Builders Corp. and engineer Mike Wohlwend of Campbell and Associates were present at the committee meeting.
Passage of the ordinance would approve the preliminary and final subdivision plat for Bath Creek Estates, a 44.86-acre subdivision on West Bath Road that includes a 2.3-acre public street right-of-way and two development sublots totaling nearly 41 acres.
The plat includes constructing a public road on a 50-foot right of way to serve two new parcels: A northern parcel (in front) for future development (Phase 2) and a southern parcel, the site of nine proposed apartment buildings housing a total of 108 residential units.
Planned are a total of six three-story and three two-story residential buildings, according to David Mann, the architect of the project. Future development in Phase 2 will be housing designated as independent-assisted living or a nursing home, said Fred Guerra, the city's planning director.
Conditions recommended by the Planning Commission include setting aside two conservation easements, including a maintenance provision for one of the easements, requiring the property owners to maintain a retention basin or pay the city to maintain it, and planting large and medium growing trees.
Also included is the construction of a 6-foot mound along part of the property's western border. Guerra said 200 6-foot pines or fir trees would be planted on top of the mound.
Bill Henry, a resident of an adjacent allotment on Fox Trace Trail in Akron, said he and other neighbors had agreed with Karam that Colorado Blue Green Spruces would be planted on the mound.
White pines should not be used, Henry said, because they grow too quickly.
Guerra assured Henry when a final tree-planting plan is submitted by the developer, the city will make sure it includes only the variety of tree approved by the neighbors and the developer.
Once approved by Council, work on the Bath Creek project will begin sometime during the first quarter of 2009, Karam told the Falls News-Press.
"It's going to depend on the weather," he said, adding that grading will not begin until then, even though Council allowed him to begin grading prior to final plat approval.
E-mail: swiandt@recordpub.com
Phone: 330-688-0088 ext. 3141