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Planning Commission approves farmer’s market relocation and restaurant site-plan with parking conditions
Summary
At the April 23 Planning Commission meeting, members approved a seasonal farmers market conditional use permit for a temporary uptown location and approved a site-plan modification and variances for a restaurant/bar with conditions including red-brick elements and a required shared-parking agreement before occupancy.
Westerville’s Planning Commission approved two items at its April 23 meeting that city council summarized during its May 6 meeting.
The first approval was a conditional use permit allowing Uptown Westerville Inc. to operate a seasonal farmers market in a parking lot between Cohatch and North Hyde Brewing at 240 South State Street for the 2025 season and through 2026. The commission approved the permit by a 7–0 vote. Commissioners and staff discussed parking logistics: event parking is proposed at 64 East Walnut and Cornerstone Church with pedestrian access via a bike path and crosswalks; commissioners expressed concerns about pedestrian crossings at State Street and possible spillover parking onto Bishop Avenue. Uptown Westerville committed to volunteer parking monitors at least for the first two market dates and to ongoing coordination with neighboring properties, including a nearby funeral home.
The commission also approved by a 7–0 vote a site-plan modification and variances for a restaurant/bar at 7609 South State Street (the applicant identified as No Soliciting). The building design proposal originally departed from the district’s red-brick character; the applicant agreed to add red-brick cladding to the upper façade, a red-brick wall at the front, and red-brick elements on signage. The approval included conditions requiring landscape buffering and a red-brick screen and made occupancy contingent on a shared-parking agreement with the adjacent Firestone business because the proposed on-site parking (17 spaces) is short of the code-required number. The commission’s approval required that the applicant provide the shared-parking agreement prior to occupying the site.
Council members discussing the Planning Commission report on May 6 reiterated concerns about on-street spillover parking on Bishop Avenue and requested staff and Uptown Westerville monitor parking and consider temporary signage or residential-permit options if necessary.
