Council members voted May 28 to confirm a Board of Zoning Appeals variance for parking-lot landscaping and to approve final site plans for a redevelopment at 5901 Mayfield Road.

The property owner team and their attorney told council the project redevelops the CVS building for three tenants and adds a roughly 5,000–5,500-square-foot building in the existing parking lot. Attorney Ben Chienacki said the owners are caught between a 2001 parking‑lot easement that mandates about 57 parking spaces and a later city code change that requires landscaping every 10 spaces; complying with both would force the property to lose required parking. "We cannot comply with the terms of the 2001 easement, and at the same time, comply with the 2018 code updates," Chienacki said, and the Board of Zoning Appeals granted a variance based on that hardship.

Law director John Schmidlin read the resolution confirming the BZA action and identifying the owners and parcel (Cuyahoga County permanent parcel number 86109001). Council voted to suspend the rules and then approved the resolution and the related final site plan after receiving the planning commission and architectural review approvals; the council referenced the BZA minutes (a 3–0 vote) during the discussion. "This was a 3 to 0 vote in granting the applicant the variance for the landscaping," Schmidlin said while presenting the resolution.

Council members asked logistical questions about the project's timing and the effect of ongoing litigation. Council member Balestreya asked whether construction would start with approval; the project's attorney said the pending lawsuit has complicated the timeline and that he could not provide a start date. Council members thanked the applicant's team for working through the process and acknowledged that litigation had made additional steps necessary.

The city also approved a final site plan motion for the new building at the same meeting; council confirmed it moved forward with the approvals required by planning and the architectural review board. The council vote to approve the variance and the final site plan was unanimous among members present.

Next steps described in the meeting: the developer must resolve outstanding litigation issues before construction can proceed; the approved variance and final plan remove the city-level obstacles tied to landscaping and site design. No building permits or construction dates were announced at the meeting.