Clark County Commissioners approved rezoning last week to allow changes to a strip of businesses in Mad River Twp. just southwest of Enon.
During a public hearing at the April 16 meeting, commissioners approved the rezoning of 1.46 acres from B-3 (general business) to B-4 (heavy business) for 6821-6847 Dayton-Springfield Road to allow a climate-controlled, indoor, self-storage facility, in addition to the existing restaurant and proposed laundromat and coffee shop.
Commissioners approved the request from Josh and Maria Homes LLC by a 3-0 vote.
The current space houses a restaurant called Panda Garden Chinese. According to the applicant, the laundromat and coffee shop is going in the northeast portion of the building, which used to be a hardware store that has been closed, and the remainder of the building has been rezoned to allow for the indoor self-storage.
Owner Maria Blake said they originally wanted to provide space for small businesses or people looking to start a small business but people couldn’t afford the rent of that building space. They considered splitting the space into smaller units for office space, but the rent was still an issue and it wouldn’t meet bathroom requirements.
“We just rezoned it because we’re having trouble getting rent … We’re really limited on commercial space, but we were getting a lot of push-back with the rent because of the square footage,” she said. “So we decided to just go ahead and try to do self-storage. But we are keeping the restaurant and coffee shop and the laundromat because we still wanted to be able to give back to the community.”
The laundromat, coffee shop and restaurant are permitted under the current B-3 zoning, but the addition of the self-storage facility is what requires the B-4 rezoning.
Planning staff recommended variances to reduce the front and rear setbacks and the distance from the building to a residential district. A site plan and stormwater management report will need to be reviewed and approved by the engineer’s office if future development happens.
The Planning Commission and Rural Zoning Commission both recommended approval of this request, with the met conditions.
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