Recordpub.com - Home next to Grandma up to the voters Rezoning issue on ballot in Streetsboro

By Miles Jung-Kilbreath

Record-Courier staff writer

STREETSBORO -- Whether a granddaughter can build a home next to her grandmother's home on Page Road will not be settled by City Council or the planning commission, but voters at the Nov. 4 general election.

"We want to do this so we can be near my grandmother," Ravenna resident Rhonda Johnston said.

Streetsoro's Issue 12 asks voters to approve rezoning 7 acres of land owned by resident, and Johnston's grandmother, Ellen Poole on Page Road near Miller Parkyway from industrial research and office zoning to low density urban residential zoning.

This is only the second rezoning issue voters will decided on since they passed referendum in Nov. 2006 that all rezoning and density changes must be affirmed on the ballot.

Poole, who has lived at her home on Page Road since 1956, said her husband purchased the industrial zoned land around her home about 10 years ago with hopes of moving his Bedford business onto their property. However, she said the move never happened and the land has been empty since then.

"There is no much space to build because of high tension wires across the southern section, so all that could really be built on it is a home or perhaps a small office building," Poole said.

Johnston said her family attends church at St. Joan of Arc in Streetsboro, so moving to the city makes sense because they are involved quite a bit in the community. She said when she told Poole they were planning to move to Streetsboro, Poole offered to allow their home to be built on her property.

"We want to be near her so we are able to come by and visit her each day," Johnston said.

Johnston said Poole already watches her daughter ever Sunday while they attend church and she would like to be near Poole in case anything were to happen to her as she grows older.

Poole said she would be happy to have her granddaughter live on a home near her.

"We are a very family oriented," Poole said.

The house Johnston would like to build would be a Cape Cod-style home.

She said the plans of the home have already passed it most important test: Poole's approval.

"We wouldn't build a house that she wouldn't like," Johnston said.

After voting early at the county Board of Election's office because of a trip that will keep her out of the city on election day, Poole said she believes the ballot language for Issue 12 may be confusing for some voters who may not understand that her granddaughter just wants to build a single home on the land.

"It doesn't explain what we are planning to do with it. A friend of mine said she wouldn't have understood it was for our rezoning except for it dealing with a lot on Page Road," Poole said.

Johnston said her family hasn't decided what they would do if the rezoning fails. She said they could look to buy another house in town or try to have the voters pass it again in a future election.

"It's risky having to go through rezoning [at an election], so whether we'd try again would all depend on what my grandma would want to do," Johnston said.