Kettering Planning Commission recommends rezoning 2325 Wilmington Pike to Business Park

The Kettering Planning Commission on April 7, 2025, voted unanimously to recommend that City Council approve a zoning map amendment to change the zoning for 2325 Wilmington Pike from O (Office) to BP (Business Park).

City planner Dave Roller told the commission the rezoning would align the site with the Comprehensive Plan and allow uses more typical of the surrounding Kettering Business Park. "The uses that you would expect to see at a business park are more of an industrial type nature," Roller said, and the proposal would "bring things into better alignment" between zoning and existing and expected uses.

The parcel includes the municipal courts and Building 46, a vacant structure that was part of a former installation on the site. Roller said the property sits in the southeast corner of the Kettering Business Park and is next to existing BP-zoned property. He noted nearby businesses include an Amazon distribution facility to the north and Solvita, associated with the Community Tissue Center, to the west.

Roller described the review under City of Kettering Zoning Code section 11.53.12 and said staff found the application met the code criteria. Staff reported the requested change is consistent with the Comprehensive Plan's land-use table, which lists the site as appropriate for "professional office and business park," and that the site is more than one acre and contiguous to the BP district. "Based on the evidence presented in the analysis and findings made within the staff report, staff recommends that the request ... be forwarded to city council with a recommendation for approval," Roller said.

Because the property is already developed and served by utilities and Wilmington Pike, staff concluded public facilities were adequate and that the rezoning would not materially change surrounding uses. Roller told commissioners the rezoning would expand allowable uses beyond the narrow professional-office allowances in the O district to include "industrial, quasi-industrial uses" regulated by the pattern district design standards.

The item was a public hearing; no members of the public spoke. Carol Fisher, secretary of the Planning Commission, read the formal motion to recommend approval, and the commission then voted by roll call. The record shows affirmative votes and the motion was forwarded to City Council for final action.

The Planning Commission's recommendation does not enact the rezoning; City Council will consider the request next. Actions by the commission may be appealed to City Council and the courts, as noted in the meeting record.