The Planning Commission of the City of Hudson, Ohio met on Monday, March 11, 2024, at 7:30 p.m. in Town Hall. The meeting included an Industrial Design Subcommittee session at 6:45 p.m., followed by the regular meeting. Six members were present (Jones, Norman, Stolle, Vaughan, Romano, Nystrom); Andrew Furbee was absent. All testimony was given under oath. The commission approved meeting minutes, conducted two public hearings on development cases, discussed administrative rules for officer term limits, and received staff updates.
The commission reviewed the Industrial Design Subcommittee’s recommendation for a revised exterior material change at 1931 Georgetown Road. The applicant, John Elsey of GBC Design, requested to replace the previously approved brick veneer on three sides with a full masonry concrete masonry unit (CMU) on all four sides, citing cost constraints. The IDS recommended a widow’s walk centered on the roof with a white picket design in lieu of a reverse gable dormer. Commissioners discussed compatibility with existing buildings, noting that scored CMU exists in the development. Concerns about window placement were addressed by requiring future windows to comply with Section 1207.18(h)(2)(b). The commission accepted the IDS recommendation.
A site plan request for a 9,984-square-foot office building (lab, packaging, and office space) for Gemco. The proposed building sits on an existing parking lot pad. The Industrial Design Subcommittee recommended: (1) north and west facades to use a material compatible with the existing building; (2) east facade windows elongated to a storefront design; (3) additional windows on north and west; (4) screening for rooftop equipment. The applicant, Rene Jimenez of Geis Company, expressed openness to alternatives but noted budget constraints. Discussion covered parking, fire access (a turnaround bump-out taking three spaces), walkway connections, tree protection, and utility relocation. The commission accepted the IDS recommendations and added conditions.
Commissioner Stolle proposed amending the administrative rules to limit officer terms (e.g., two years as chair or vice chair). Staff provided history showing the commission had self-regulated, and other city boards did not have similar limits. Commissioners expressed mixed views; some favored change of leadership but not formal codification, noting the burdens on staff and the risk of not having willing successors. After discussion, Stolle withdrew the motion, and the commission dropped the proposal.
On Monday, March 11th, 2024, we are here for the industrial design subcommittee meeting for two uh architectural reviews. And Mr. Sugar, if you'd like to introduce the first application, take it away. Yep, our first application is which I'm co-medical 5640 Hudson Industrial Parkway. This is a a new building to be located on their on their existing campus. So we have the site plan. Just it's a very large property, but you can see the proposed building, which would be located to the north of the existing uh building there. Some color renderings with material specs, and uh long list of uh material uh product sheets. Um so just uh give a quick overview of the the staff memo that was attached to this application. Um overall the building would be largely taking elements from the existing uh office building on the property. Um when we walked through the standards, we had a couple comments though. Um was uh in the viewscapes and materials section uh structure should be designed to be a single architectural entity rather than a collection of unrelated facades. Uh, we did notice that uh uh that the uh two east ends or the east and south elevations would have a brick facade while the west and north elevations would have an efus facade. Uh we recommended that that be consistent um brick around the building. Um and then there is a requirement that size and proportion of window and wall openings in the structure shall be related to one another and the spaces between them within the overall development of the facade and on those same facades west and north. We um recommended additional windows or fenestration uh to meet that requirement. Um but overall the design is very compatible um with the main structure with those two um comments and recommendations from staff. Go ahead, please. Oh hi, my name is Brene Jimenez. I'm from uh Geist Companies, and we've been working with uh Gemco for a number of years. We built the original building. Um and uh they always keep coming back to us because we understand what they do and what they want and how sensitive they are to their buildings. So they asked us to look at different areas where we can put a 10,000 square foot building. It's it's uh they call that a pharmacy, but it's more of a packaging uh delivery type facility, and most of the most of the building itself is uh it's business use offices and conference rooms. Um the exterior of the building, we are being sensitive to the existing structure. That being said, uh we are as we're developing the the elevations and the construction documents. We are looking at different elements from the existing facade. For instance, they have some arch entryways across the way, uh adding a little bit more of the tan, yes, there's there's the arch. So we're you know thinking of borrowing some of these elements, putting them at the entryway, uh adding a little bit more of that tan brick to the facade itself just to break up the mess. Uh and these are things that are being done and thought about in terms of making the design better, the the architecture, the aesthetics, and at the same time, you know, keeping the the cost down. Uh brick tends to get a little expensive. That's one of the reasons why we chose to do uh stucco facade on the on the side, so you're not going to see uh from the street mainly in the back. And we did add a few more windows to to the back just because of uh uh the use of the space, you know, and they have some beautiful views in the back to to the wetlands, so it's it's developing a little more, but the overall intent and the design is still the same. Any questions, discussions? Go ahead. Does this show the additional windows? Actually, this doesn't show the additional windows. We we were um the client asked for a few more, but he also asked us to provide a cost per window. And uh I believe we added seven more windows to the back to both to both facades. The western is that seven total or seven each northwest. Seven total. Okay. One of the big rooms is their packaging, it's a lab, so they don't want a lot of light in there, plus what they keep in there is it's sensitive. They don't want people to be looking in and be able to you know break the window and get into that space. Yeah. That's the three thousand square feet that we we call lab. Okay. On the um the brick work that you're it's gonna be the existing building has like some soldier um runs and then we we did the the best to uh to basically mimic what they've done here with some solder coursing, some split face masonry units, the same type of brick. Uh you know, we we we uh we're matching existing and we're matching the details elevations uh as much as we can. Except for the the back, which is the west elevation, and then are you saying you're doing inficit on the north?