Board approves lighting and landscaping plan for 550 West Broad Street with staff conditions

The East Franklinton Review Board approved a lighting and landscaping certificate of approval for 550 West Broad Street (COA2500464) after staff recommended conditions to reduce glare and add plantings to screen adjacent parking and headlight glare.

Staff summary and board action - Planning staff said the proposal would retain existing street trees on West Broad, add eight small planted beds of assorted annuals, and install new downlighting along first-floor and garage facades consistent with East Franklinton plan recommendations for fully shielded, downward-directed fixtures. - Staff recommended approval subject to replacing proposed up/down fixtures with fully downward-directed fixtures (the "L2" style in the staff discussion), adding additional landscaping along the North Mill/Gift Street facade to mitigate headlight intrusion from adjacent parking, and generally conforming the submitted design to the board's discussion on corners and sidewalk activation. - The board approved the application with those staff conditions. The motion directed staff and the applicant to remove turf shown in a number of plan areas and replace it with planted material and to arrange plantings so commercial bays on Broad Street read as an active urban edge.

Why it matters: The conditions aim to reduce light pollution adjacent to an existing park and to improve pedestrian and street-level activation along Broad Street as new sidewalks and street trees are installed under the new district code.

Discussion highlights - Staff explained the application also interacts with recent code updates that treat certain facades as primary pedestrian frontage; the updated code increases the expectation for 12-foot-deep active commercial bays along major frontages and tighter landscape and lighting standards. Staff and applicants clarified which variances remain in process from earlier approvals. - Applicants Grant Dolben (Grateful Development) and Nora Bejji (architect) confirmed their testimony and committed to additional landscape and lighting revisions.

Outcome and conditions - Motion to approve COA2500464 passed (seconded). The approval conditions included replacement of up/down fixtures with downward-directed fixtures, additional planting along the North Gift/Mill facade to mitigate headlight screening from adjacent parking, removal of existing grass planting strips in favor of mixed evergreen and seasonal plantings, and general conformance with the board's discussion about visual corner treatments and sidewalk activation.

Clarifying details - Application: COA2500464 for lighting and landscaping at 550 West Broad Street. - Key conditions: switch proposed fixtures to downward-directed type; additional landscaping on North Gift/Mill facade; replace turf/grassing with planted materials; coordinate street trees and sidewalks with city standards.

Speakers - Grant Dolben, Grateful Development (owner representative) - Nora Bejji, architect - Planning staff (presenting staff report) - Board members: Mr. Perez, Mr. White, Mr. Smith, Mr. Sweeney, Mr. Burrows (participating in deliberations)

Actions - Kind: other (approval with conditions) - motion: "Approve COA2500464 with staff conditions: replace up-down lighting with downward-directed fixtures (L2 style), add additional landscaping along North Gift Street façade to mitigate headlight screening, remove turf and replace with planting, and otherwise conform to board discussion on activation and corner treatments." - mover: not specified in transcript - second: not specified - vote_record: not specified (motion seconded and approved; transcript does not provide roll-call tally) - outcome: approved - notes: Approval conditioned on the items above; applicants and staff to implement revisions during permit review.

Authorities - type: other; name/description: "East Franklinton plan lighting and ground-floor activation recommendations"; referenced_by:["coa2500464-550-west-broad-street-approved"]

Discussion_decision - discussion_points:["Updated district code increases expectations for active commercial frontage and lighting standards","Need to mitigate headlight glare from adjacent parking","Desire to create an urban edge on Broad Street with sidewalks and street trees"] - directions:["Applicant to replace up-down lighting with downward-only fixtures","Applicant to add additional landscape screening along North Gift/Mill facade and replace turf with planted material"] - decisions:["COA2500464 approved with staff conditions"]

proper_names:[{"name":"550 West Broad Street","type":"location"},{"name":"Grateful Development","type":"organization"},{"name":"East Franklinton","type":"location"}],

clarifying_details:[{"category":"landscaping","detail":"Addition of eight small planted beds, replacement of turf with planted materials","value":"not specified","units":"not specified","approximate":false,"source_speaker":"planning staff"},{"category":"lighting","detail":"Replace up-down L1 fixtures with downward-directed L2 fixtures","value":"not specified","units":"fixture type","approximate":false,"source_speaker":"planning staff"}],

community_relevance:{"geographies":["East Franklinton","West Broad Street"],"funding_sources":[],"impact_groups":["pedestrians","nearby residents","park users"]},

searchable_tags:["landscaping","lighting","Broad Street","East Franklinton"],

provenance:{"transcript_segments":[{"block_id":"3700.23","local_start":0,"local_end":140,"evidence_excerpt":"We have 1 new application. The application is COA 2500464. It's for Whiting and Landscaping at 550 West Broad Street. The applicant is Archall Archall Architects, and the owner is Grateful Development.","global_start":3700,"global_end":3718,"tc_start":"61:40:23","tc_end":"61:58:38","reason_code":"topicintro"},{"block_id":"4990.1553","local_start":0,"local_end":220,"evidence_excerpt":"...the replacement of all up down lighting l 1 style of proposed l 2 style down lighting. And the other, additional landscaping along the North Gift Street facade to mitigate headlight screening from adjacent parking structure and generally conform, to the, discussion that was, that ensued in today's, hearing.","global_start":4990,"global_end":5019,"tc_start":"83:10:00","tc_end":"83:39:45","reason_code":"topicfinish"}] } ,