Draft zoning code updates to be presented at public meeting

by Dan Holland

Residents can attend a public meeting on Oct. 14, during which a preview and presentation of a draft code to update village zoning regulations will take place.

The firm of Tunnel Spangler Walsh was hired by the village last year to work with the Planning Department staff, the Planning Commission and Village Council on a significant update to the code, which has been amended numerous times since 2011.

According to the Richfield Village website, the draft zoning code updates are intended to implement the 2024 Comprehensive Land Use Plan Update, provide a revised zoning map, a nonconformities map and a review of approved variances and their potential impact on current and future zoning.

“The Comprehensive Land Use Plan is the policy document that we completed about two years ago, and then to implement your policy document, which is your blueprint of how you want your community to grow over time, you implement that through your zoning code,” explained Planning & Zoning Director Brian Frantz.

“Our zoning code was older and didn’t align with the Comprehensive Land Use Plan, and that’s why we’re updating the zoning code to align with and implement that,” he added. “We also want to make it more user-friendly; easier to read for residents or a contracting company that wants to build something for a resident.”

The comprehensive plan, based largely on resident input, calls for maintaining the rural character of the village, preserving the Historic District, protecting open spaces, expanding housing options, supporting managed growth, encouraging redevelopment and providing improved connectivity. A need to clearly separate commercial, industrial and residential uses was also desired, along with better-defined property maintenance codes.

“The zoning code has been modified many times since 1967, and what was applicable in 1967 is not true for us today as far as what we want to see in the village,” said Mayor Michael Wheeler. “So, we went through the zoning code line-by-line and looked at what is current today and what needs to be updated. It was a full one-year undertaking to do that.”

A significant update to the zoning code will include an adjustment of property setbacks.

“We’re right-sizing the zoning setbacks by parcel size,” explained Frantz. “Right now, our setbacks encumber a lot of people’s properties, so we’re trying to giving residents and businesses more use of their properties by reducing the setbacks in line with the size of their property.”

“If you look at the current setbacks on smaller lots, they’re set at 50 feet from the back, 20 feet on each side and a 100-foot setback from the road; that’s a lot of square footage off a 21,500-square-foot lot,” added Wheeler. “You weren’t able to use much of your lot, and so we made those changes.”

Zoning that defines the Crossroads District, located at Wheatley and Brecksville roads, will also be a component of implementation, according to Frantz.

Examples of amendments to zoning in recent years have included rezoning the former Constantine’s Garden Center property from C-2 (general business) to R-4 (multifamily residential) to allow for a 44-unit rental high-density residential development by Petros Development Group, restricting vehicle fuel stations to a conditional use at no more than two locations in the village, allowing 8-foot-high fences next to interstate highways and approving changing parcels at Richfield Office Park, located on the east side of Brecksville Road north of the Ohio Turnpike, from general business to industrial.

“Our consultant will have it in a format that can go to adoption by October, and then it’s a matter of however long the community takes to adopt it,” said Frantz. “The Planning Commission has been driving the bus on the process, and it will now go to council, and a lot of the councilmembers have been involved. When it goes to council on a recommendation from the Planning Commission, then I would think it will be rather smooth sailing.”

A joint Planning Commission and Village Council meeting on Oct. 14 will be held from 6-8 p.m.

“I encourage residents to come out to the meetings and be engaged in the process,” said Frantz. “I think a more informed community, as it relates to the laws of how things work in the town, is better. So, if they can come and participate, the education piece of that should help us along the way as we implement the new zoning.”

For information go to richfieldvillageohio.org/704/2025—2026-Zoning-Code-Update-Project.