Single-family homes will rise in Grandview Yard

The first single-family home development at Grandview Yard has been given the go-ahead by the city.

The planning commission Feb. 25 approved Wagenbrenner Development’s plan to build 45 units on two lots totaling about 2.7 acres west of Bobcat Avenue between Burr and Williams avenues.

Grandview Heights City Council gave its approval Monday, March 2.

Wagenbrenner will purchase the property from Nationwide Realty Investors.

The developer will build 20 detached single-family homes on the east side of a new street called Pullman Way, with 25 townhouses on the west side, Michael Amicon of Wagenbrenner told the planning commission. All the homes will be condominiums that will be sold to tenants.

The single-family homes will be similar to the units Wagenbrenner built in its Harrison Park development in the Harrison West neighborhood.

All 45 homes are expected to be ready by the end of this year.

The Yard site has a significant slope from the alley to Bobcat Avenue. Two-car garages will be built for each single-family home on the alley with steps leading down from the garages to flat backyards and the first floors of the homes.

Basements will make up the grade difference between the front of the units and the street.

“We’re making a negative into a positive,” Amicon said. “These will be basements unlike any other in Grandview.”

The site is zoned Grandview Commerce Mixed Use District; under that designation, the planning commission has authority over any improvements located within 100 feet of the western boundary of Grandview Yard.

The review authority was negotiated to give more public oversight of proposed developments that would abut the adjacent residential neighborhood.

“I do believe this is the appropriate transition from Grandview Yard into the neighborhood,” planning commission member Tom Komlanc said.

Steven Orenchuk, a Timberman Road resident, attended both the planning commission and City Council meetings to express his concern about the plan to build single-family homes.

The homes are bound to bring more children into the area and have an impact on the Grandview Heights City School District, Orenchuk said.

The residential units also won’t bring as much tax revenue as commercial development, he said.

Single-family homes were not envisioned in the original plan for the Yard laid out by NRI, and this particular site was purchased by NRI and added to the Yard development after the project was announced, Orenchuk said.

The school district will get about six times as much tax revenue from the single-family homes as the city, council President Anthony Panzera said during the council meeting.

The agreement with the school district also sets up a sliding scale in which the schools will get a higher percentage of funds as the number of residential units increases in the Yard, with less going to the tax-increment financing fund, Mayor Ray DeGraw said.