Hilliard BZA approves expansion of outdoor storage for landscaping company at 5522 Center Street, 3-1

The Hilliard Board of Zoning Appeals on April 17 approved an expansion of outdoor storage for a landscaping business at 5522 Center Street, voting 3-1 to allow the site plan presented by the applicant to formalize multiple outdoor storage and material-handling areas that staff said are currently in active use.

Staff told the board the site is a nonconforming use in the Old Hilliard residential district and that the original 2016 approval showed approximately 7% of the site used for outdoor storage. The applicant’s new scaled plan identifies 11 distinct areas of outdoor storage or material staging that staff calculated at about 16.3% of the site. Staff found that expansion to 16.3% represents a significant departure from the code provisions that govern nonconforming uses in the Old Hilliard residential zoning district, said the plan does not specify which areas will be paved or graveled, and that the proposal does not provide adequate screening from the adjacent Heritage Rail Trail. Based on those findings staff said it could not recommend approval of the plan as submitted.

Applicant Matt Forcione, who presented slides and site photos, said the areas identified represent a mix of concrete bunker blocks that store aggregate and mulch, pallets of leftover pavers consolidated for later use, equipment trailers parked on paved aprons and an area where the company seasons and stores palletized firewood. Forcione said some of the yard items are cyclical — filled during busy months and consolidated or cleared for laying pavers in off-season work — and that the applicant made on-site improvements including paving employee and guest parking and installing new siding on the building.

Forcione said the company consolidated and removed several pallets of wet-cast and natural stone products after receiving the notice of violation and that some materials are held temporarily for reuse on projects. “When I got the notice of this infraction, we…took it to the concrete recycling place,” he said. Forcione told the board his business employs about 30 people and that he expects operations to level off rather than expand significantly in the future.

A board member moved to approve “an expansion of a nonconforming use in accordance with Hilliard Code section 1106.05 for the approval of the outdoor storage of construction materials and equipment for a landscaping company on 5.54 acres,” incorporating the plan shown. The motion was seconded and passed 3-1. One board member voting no said the proposed level of outdoor storage departs too far from the zoning code and asked for more detailed follow-up on screening and limits.

The board heard no neighbors’ comments at the meeting. A board member recused themself from this case because of a business and personal relationship with the applicant; the hearing proceeded with the remaining members. Staff will retain enforcement and permitting authority to ensure the approved plan matches the paved/surfaced areas and screening to be required by the board.