Painesville City Council will consider whether to rezone a property to allow an assisted living facility off of Shamrock Boulevard. City officials and a representative from Chicago-based firm Vermillion Development recently discussed the proposal at a Painesville Planning Commission meeting. The dev eloper is seeking to rezone it from B-2 General Business to B-1 Business/Residential. The facility is being proposed for a 5-acre portion of property east of Shamrock Boulevard, between the Elizabeth Boulevard intersection and the railroad tracks. Painesville Planning Director Sarah Sitterle said the land is currently undeveloped. An application from Vermillion Development and the firm’s development director, Richard Choi, said that the facility would be a new three-story building with 120 units. Sitterle said that the proposed facility would include personal care, housekeeping, laundry, nursing services, meal service, scheduled non-medical transportation, social and recreational programming and 24-hour on-site staff availability. Residents would have private units with a kitchenette, bathroom and sleeping area, she added. There would be common dining and social areas. Vermillion Leasing and Development Director Darrin Jolas said that the property would be operated by Silver Birch Living. The company owns and operates 10 assisted living facilities in Ohio, Indiana and Illinois and also operates two more in Arizona. “You guys have an aging population or at least a portion of your population that is getting older, and so there’s a lot of demand and a lot of need for different types of housing for that population,” Jolas said. He said that senior housing could be beneficial for Painesville because it would allow local residents to age in place and stay near their churches, doctors, families and friends. Jolas also said that there would be 45-50 full-time equivalent jobs, about $2.25 million to $2.5 million in annual payroll and no impact to the schools. The facility could take some of the healthcare burden off of local hospitals. He added that the company would try to charge the average rental rate for the area. Vermillion is probably 6-10 months from breaking ground, Jolas said. Construction would probably take 15 months. The planning commission unanimously recommended rezoning the property at its Jan. 8 meeting. The rezoning request now goes to Painesville City Council for three readings. The first reading will be at council’s Jan. 20 meeting. After that, council has a meeting scheduled on Feb. 2, and then the third reading and public hearing will be held at council’s Feb. 17 meeting, according to a city manager’s report. All three meetings are scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and take place at Courtroom 1, Painesville City Hall, 7 Richmond St. The public hearing during the Feb. 17 meeting will start at 7:15 p.m. Business park The facility would be part of a larger proposed business park in that area. The land is owned by Shamrock Commercial LLC, which is registered in state filings to developer George Davis III. Davis discussed the business park with the planning commission at its Jan. 8 meeting, but no votes for the business park were taken. The areas to the south of the assisted living facility would be marketed as the business park, he said. Potential uses could include a The proposal did not include specific plans for what projects would go on which portions of the property. Davis said that developers hotel, office building, corporate headquarters or “clean manufacturing” facility, and one section could get a convenience store or gas station.typically need to complete projects in a short time frame for clients, so developers like to have in place what they can beforehand. He requested flexibility and said that the development team will need to come back to the city for any use it plans to add on the site. Davis said he is working with city officials to implement deed restrictions and a business park development overlay for the Shamrock property, which he said would allow activities like research and development and light manufacturing. “Painesville doesn’t have many large parcels left, and so it’s important to use those parcels to create jobs in the city, quality jobs, and manufacturing and RD are quality jobs,” Davis said. City Manager Doug Lewis told the planning commission that the city had a concern that Shamrock’s proposal did not provide specific information about what would go in specific areas of the site. He said he would be in favor of the overlay request if there was more information. “At this time, there’s a lot of things that could be placed within those boxes that may not be beneficial for the city, even though we did, with the business park, identify the types of things that we want within that business park zoning district,” Lewis said. He added that the city has worked well with the developers, and he believes that the city can work with the developers to identify more uses in specific areas of the map. “They control the property, we’re not trying to take away their ability to develop it, but we want to work with them to develop in a manner that’s right,” Lewis said. Davis later said in a phone call that the development team and city have been working together since the planning commission meeting. He is confident that they will have the documents that will make the city and planning commission comfortable enough to approve the overlay at a future meeting. Developer documents show that the proposed business park would be next to a proposed realignment of Jackson Street, which would include a new interchange with state Route 44. The street would be roughly halfway between the existing Jackson Street and the intersection of Shamrock and Elizabeth boulevards. Another corporation registered to Davis, Renaissance Industrial LLC, owns land on the eastern side of the freeway. “It’s a very important part of Painesville’s future,” Davis said. City Manager Doug Lewis said last year that the city hopes construction on the interchange will start in 2028 or 2029. ...read more read less