Bonnieview Owner’s Seek Zoning Change For Apartments

[Bill Call]

In response to a complaint, Lakewood’s Housing Department conducted an inspection of the apartment building at 1327 Bonnieview. The correction notice listed two violations:


1. Operating a business in an R-2 Zoning district. The use must be discontinued or the property must be rezoned to accommodate business use.

2.No change in occupancy (use) is permitted to take place until a certificate of occupancy has been issued. The violation further stated that, “A certificate of use and occupancy cannot be issued until conformance with all elements of the Ohio building code pertaining to the change of occupancy can be demonstrated”.

Mental Health Services has transferred clients formally housed in Cleveland to the apartments at Bonniview. MHS intends to occupy 58 of the 72 units in the building. MHS’s web site has been updated to include the new mental health facility at Bonnieview. According to the web site, MHS intends to offer:

“Two HUD programs of permanent housing and ON SITE SUPPORT SERVICES (my emphasis) for homeless adults who have severe mental disabilities. EDEN Inc. is grantee."

In its response to the violation notice, Kevin Spellacy of McGinty, Hilow & Spellacy, sought to appeal the findings.

The appeal prepared by Big Oak, LLC stated in part: “this building had a pre-existing office and as such, this is a continuation of a pre-existing use”.

The issue before the board is simple. Does one management office in an apartment building zoned R-2 allow the owners to add additional offices and change the use of the building? In this case the conversion of a residential apartment building into a mental health facility.

If this appeal is granted any apartment building owner can change the use of any apartment building to any business use be it halfway house, hospice, homeless shelter, mental health facility, massage parlor, general office use or any other use that can be imagined.

The appeal will be heard on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 6:30 PM at Lakewood’s City Hall.

I intend to be there. I hope to see you there too.

After the hearing I’ll be at Sullivan’s for a cold one.

[michael gill]

Former Lakewood law director Kevin Spellacy has on at least one prior occasion worked on behalf of corporations and against people in the same neighborhood.

He represented the operator of IHOP when they sought a conditional use permit to stay open to meet the needs of the after-midnight bar crowd.

He was law director when the city implemented its regulation of 24-hour businesses, so he was well prepared to help the business get around it.

[Bill Call]

Former Lakewood law director Kevin Spellacy has on at least one prior occasion worked on behalf of corporations and against people in the same neighborhood.

Is there a broader agenda at play?

Big Oak, LLC (recently renamed) so mismanaged its investment that their relatively new building had an 80% vacancy rate. They owed back property taxes and were likely facing foreclosure. Then, out of no where, a taxpayer supported County supported agency offers the owners a MILLION DOLLAR PAYDAY.

To secure that payday Big Oak seeks the help of a law office whose principals are active in County politics. The help needed? Big Oak needed their help to eviscerate Lakewood’s zoning ordinances.

Doing so will allow apartment owners in Lakewood to convert residential apartments into mental health service centers, homeless shelters, halfway houses and more. Coi bono?

There is more here than meets the eye.

[michael gill]

I don't know about that, and I haven't looked into this situation really at all. I only meant to note that since serving as Lakewood law director, Spellacy seems to be in the business of working for business and against local governments, and he was hired to help I-Hop get its late night conditional use, which he succeeded in doing.

As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out on this project down at Oak Tree Manor. It does not seem to me a good idea to ghettoize the mentally ill, but it is more efficient that way, which enables agencies like MHS to run on smaller budgets. Or to make more money. I've heard stories of neighbors' discomfort, but I haven't had any bad experience myself.

We have to deal as a society with our moral obligation to every other human being. Unless someone engaged here has the energy and capacity to re-invent our social services programs, agencies like this are all we have to deal with a very needy part of our society. They go for low rent.

The neighborhood certainly has a right to question the severity and nature of mental illness being warehoused there, bearing in mind the literally dozens of small children who live on my street between Detroit and the tracks, and the fact that a city park at the corner attracts plenty more from surrounding streets.

[Bill Call]

As far as I am concerned, the jury is still out on this project down at Oak Tree Manor. It does not seem to me a good idea to ghettoize the mentally ill, but it is more efficient that way, which enables agencies like MHS to run on smaller budgets. Or to make more money.

I have a lot of sympathy for the clients of MHS and I respect the work done by the agency itself.

I'm a little concerned about concentrating so many with severe mental illness in a residential area without proper support. That support means a substantial business presence in the building which means a change in use which means a residential apartment in a residential area will be converted to a mental health center. If Big Oak can do it why not others?

Will Lakewood be the new home for hundreds more?
What affect will that have on the quaility of life here?
On tax collections? On the use of the hospital?
What is a severe mental illness?
Are any of these people addicted to drugs?
Where will they get their drugs?
Will they have to leave the City to get them or will the drugs come to them?
Will Clevelands homeless be relocated to Lakewood and other communities or just Lakewood?
What would happen if a Cleveland homeless service agency opened a new facility near Crocker Park and bussed two hundred one time homeless to a new building in Westlake? Would it be news?

Maybe some answers will be given at the meeting.

[Bill Call]

It is possible that the owners of the Bonnieview apartments will be seeking a continuance and that no final decision will be made at the Thursday meeting.

I still attend to show up just to see what's going on. If you are concerned about the conversion of apartments into other businesss uses you should show up as well.

The meeting will be September, 17 2009 at 6:30 PM at City Hall.

My primary concern is efforts by the City of Cleveland to "cleanse" Tremont and other areas of it's homeless to make way for trendy development. The "cleansing" will take the form of homeless relocation programs.

There are good reasons to move the homeless and mentally from inner city areas. If some were moved to Lakewood as part of a larger plan to relocate those residents throughout the region along with the support staff they need I would support that effort.

I don't think that is what is going on.

Of course, what really gets my goat is that our tax dollars are being used to supply a MILLION DOLLAR payday to irresponsible building owners.

[michael gill]

The BZA or planning commission has previously ruled to keep commercial use in this neighborhood contained. A few years ago a property owner wanted to demolish three houses--one on Detroit, two on Edwards--to build a parking lot which would principally serve bar patrons. The commission allowed the zoning variance for the first house on Edwards, which was in accord with the provisions of the code, but not the second.