MANSFIELD — Jerry Holden said there is a need for housing in north central Ohio, a thought endorsed by a recent county-wide housing study.
The leader of the Holden Property Group and Wigton Construction hopes new condominiums he has planned at the north end of Home Road will help fill that need.
The Mansfield Planning Commission on Wednesday gave its blessing to preliminary plans to Holden’s proposal to build 15 duplexes in a Planned Unit Development District on 10 acres he owns north of Walker Lake Road.
The project is being
The land is adjacent to property owned by The Ohio State University-Mansfield.
“I see other builders out there that are building condominiums and they’re doing quite well with them. I’ve owned this piece of ground for 15 or 16 years. The time is now to build some condominiums to fit the market,” Holden said recently.
Development will include public street
Holden will build a public street through the complex and will provide “water, sewer and other essential public needs,” according to Marc Milliron, the City of Mansfield demolition coordinator.
The area is zoned multi-family already. Holden needs city approval because the front-yard depth will be less than required in order to allow maximum depth in the rear-yards of the duplexes.
Who is the target audience for the development?
Planning Commission member Dan Seckel asked Holden to identity his target market for the duplex condos.
“Who are you trying to attract here in the community?” the architect asked, pointing to the fact the yards are not large nor is there space set aside for a park in suggesting it’s designed for people without children.
Holden said he was open to “everybody.”
“There is a demand for more housing in north central Ohio. That’s for sure,” Holden said. “Whether you’re 18 or all the way up, there is a demand.”
Armed with approval of the preliminary plans, Holden, working with Marsh Engineering Solutions from Collins, Ohio, will work to provide finalized building plans.
“I need your guys’ blessing before I can start pushing dirt. And I’m looking to push dirt rather quickly,” Holden told commission members.
Seckel said, “As long as everything substantially moves through the process according to the preliminary, we have blessed the project.”
Commission recommends livestock harvesting facility
The commission also approved a request from E.R. Boliantz Packing Co., Inc. to recommend to City Council a conditional zoning change that would allow the company to operate a slaughter facility at 1325 N. Main St.
Bob Boliantz told commission members he would like to purchase the 29,000-square foot building on the five-acre parcel and use it to slaughter about 35 animals a day.
All of the slaughtering will take place indoors, according to Boliantz, an Ashland County resident, who said the food industry has turned to locally-sourced products.
Boliantz’s beef, purchased from area farms, can be found in a host of retail stores around Ohio, including the source of 15-store Buehler’s Fresh Foods’ “Proudly Raised in Ohio Certified Angus Beef ® brand” program.
Boliantz said there were once large plants in Ohio that slaughtered 500 to 3,000 animals per week.
“They’re all gone. This has brought more demand on the small plants. There’s few of us left,” he said.
“I’m operating now in a plant that’s a little under 10,000 square-feet. We purchased the Weidle’s (Meats) building that would take some of the pressure off.
“We moved all the custom processing there and the other plant’s gone. So this is a little better than twice a square footage that we have,” Boliantz said.
Employee base has more than doubled
He said his business has grown to 51 employees, up from 20.
“We need to do something here. There’s opportunity for employment. We’re not mainstream suppliers. We’re a niche market. We don’t put all our eggs in one basket. We do a lot of processing for other small plants. We do a lot of wholesale work. We market stuff from Detroit to Pittsburgh to Columbus to Cleveland,” he said.
“That’s grown because of the recognition. People want to know who fed the cattle, where the meat comes from, who stands behind it. So we put our our name on everything,” Boliantz said.
Boliantz’s plants are federally inspected and meet all USDA requirements. He said a rendering company comes to his plant daily to pick up byproducts left over from the slaughtering process.
Milliron told commission members there are no nearby residents.
“The nearest neighbor that we looked at is probably around 4,000 feet away. This area that they’re in … it’s an industrial area. There’s not a lot of housing,” Milliron aid.
City Council will consider the zoning ordinance change at an upcoming meeting.
