Planning panel approves Whitmer High School campus master plan update after resident concerns about Lyceum access

The City of Toledo Planning Commission on a unanimous vote approved an amendment to the Whitmer High School institutional campus master plan that updates the Whitmer Drive alignment and shows a conceptual relocation of the high school building on the campus at 5601 Clegg Drive.

The amendment, presented as a conceptual update to the Whitmer campus plan, reflects an ongoing Whitmer Drive relocation to the west. The plan shows parking shifted east, Whitmer Drive moved west, and a potential future high school location to the south of the current building; the change is intended to reduce the need for students to cross Whitmer Drive, the district said.

The vote comes after public comment from several nearby residents who said the proposal, as drawn, would connect Lyceum Place into the campus network and change that street's character. Neighbors pressed the district and the commission on traffic flow for parent pick-up and drop-off, stormwater runoff and whether sidewalks and snow-clearing responsibilities would fall to adjacent homeowners.

At the hearing, Joe Adams of The Collaborative, the district's project representative, described the plan as conceptual and said the high school relocation would allow the district to keep the existing vocational building and portions of the current high school in service while building a new structure. Adams said the field house and auditorium might be retained and other portions removed as phases proceed.

Several Lyceum Place residents said they feared the change would turn a quiet dead-end neighborhood street into a bus and parent drop-off corridor. Paul Kozak, a resident, asked whether the district would need to install noise barriers and a pumping station for stormwater because of altered drainage patterns; Mary Hodap and other neighbors said daily parent traffic already causes congestion on narrow streets during pickups and that moving drop-off points could make egress difficult in bad weather.

Christie Martin, superintendent for Washington Local Schools, said the project is being advanced so the district is prepared if the Ohio Facilities Construction Commission (OFCC) offers funding; she said Whitmer is Toledo's largest high school, with about 2,200 students, and the district needs an approach that allows continued operations during any construction. Martin said the proposal seeks to improve student safety by reducing crossings of Whitmer Drive and that many details ' including final drop-off configurations, drainage and sidewalks ' will be the subject of later site-plan reviews and public meetings.

Planning staff confirmed that the amendment is conceptual only and that any individual building or parking plans would return to the commission as separate site plans. Staff also said drainage and ADA and pedestrian access issues would be evaluated during future site-plan or building-plan reviews. The commission noted the master plan must be updated periodically and that alternatives remain open as the project advances.

Commissioners voted to approve the master plan amendment with 27 standard conditions included in the staff report; the decision will go to Toledo City Council on July 16 for final review. The commission record notes the approval does not itself authorize construction, and that detailed site plans, stormwater control measures and sidewalk/curb improvements will be required and reviewed later.

Residents and district officials agreed the conceptual plan would be further refined through additional public meetings and engineering reviews before any construction.