Kettering OKs land use change for new housing near Meijer, restaurant row

New housing can be built on land (left side of photo) near Meijer and a busy business district featuring several restaurants. The city of Kettering on Tuesday night approved a new use for a vacant site near the Wilmington Pike/Woodman Drive split. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

Credit: JIM NOELKER

Credit: JIM NOELKER

New housing can be built on land (left side of photo) near Meijer and a busy business district featuring several restaurants. The city of Kettering on Tuesday night approved a new use for a vacant site near the Wilmington Pike/Woodman Drive split. JIM NOELKER/STAFF

KETTERING — Starting next month, new housing can be built on land near Meijer and a business district featuring several restaurants.

The change at a vacant site at the Wilmington Pike/Woodman Drive split involves “consolidating the zoning on several parcels that have different zoning into one” residential district, Kettering City Manager Matt Greeson said.

The change will make the land at 4225 and 4235 Wilmington more attractive to potential buyers, which is the owners’ intent, a real estate agent associated with the site said.

The Kettering City Council on Tuesday night approved the rezoning. The change goes into effect next month.

New housing soon could be built on land near Meijer and a business district featuring several restaurants. STAFF

Credit: STAFF

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Credit: STAFF

The land sits just south of a commercial corridor that — aside from Meijer — includes a long row of restaurants with another one in the works. Taco John’s plans to join Burger King, Popeye’s, Lee’s, Wendy’s, McDonald’s and Dunkin, as well as some sit-down restaurants.

In the past few years, two multi-story apartment buildings have been constructed immediately west and south of the Meijer store. The parcel being prepared for new housing is southeast of Meijer, next to an El Rancho Grande restaurant.

The change for the 0.85-acre site was sought by Ronald Solada, Kettering records show. Solada has the same address as ELMSCO LTD, which bought the land in 2011, according to Montgomery County property records. Attempts to reach Solada have been unsuccessful.

The land use change recommended by the Kettering Planning Commission in July could make possible up to 18 apartments, according to the real estate website redfin.com.

Solada wanted the site “rezoned as multi-family to make it easier for somebody else to do something with the property,” Bob Caperna, who is listed on the redfin.com the agent for the land, told the Dayton Daily News earlier.

Three other attempts to rezone the land failed in the past 10 years after two buildings were demolished, city records show. None of the proposals were approved because they didn’t comply with Kettering’s code, city planner Ryan Homsi told planning commissioners.

Kettering’s comprehensive plan depicts the vacant site “as being a higher-density residential area,” Homsi told planning commissioners.

With the Wilmington corridor, “commercial uses should be concentrated at the two specific intersections,” East Dorothy Lane and East Stroop Road, Homsi said.

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