Aurora’s planning commission has given preliminary and final site plan approval to a home furnishings company to build a 131,410-square-foot distribution center in the city’s southern industrial zone.
At its Feb. 2 meeting, the planning commission approved Wellsville Carpet Town/Ashley Furniture’s proposed building on 10.1 acres at 335 Lena Drive, just to the east of Trelleborg Sealing Profiles US Inc.
Accublends and Robeck Fluid Power Co. are located across the street.
The building would handle area distribution for the Weston Mills, N.Y.-based firm, which has existed since 1967 and operates Ashley Furniture HomeStores, Carpet Town Carpet One and Ashley Furniture Outlets in Northeast Ohio, central Pennsylvania and western New York.
In late 2019, City Council approved a 15-year, 100 percent tax abatement for the firm, which initially plans to bring about 50 new full-time jobs from its leased facility in Maple Heights.
The additional payroll is estimated at $1.48 million, with about 30 third-party delivery service workers adding $900,000 a year.
When council approved the tax abatement, the company had announced the total investment, including purchase of the land, would be about $11 million.
When the project was first unveiled in September 2021, Wellsville Carpet Town President Timothy Quinn said the building would house a 39-foot tall racking system to accommodate product storage, plus offices and about a 4,000-square-foot showroom.
Plans are for the building to include 29 loading docks for incoming and outgoing trucks. A stormwater management basin is planned at the rear of the property, and there is space at the back of the proposed building for a 25,000-square-foot expansion.
Planning-Zoning-Building Director Denise Januska said a 2-foot height variance was approved by the board of zoning appeals, improvement plans were OK’d, city arborist comments were satisfied and the fire department is comfortable with an asphalt drive around the building.
The planning panel’s approval allows the firm to provide 73 parking spaces – 103 fewer than the zoning code requires. A grading exception was granted because of site constraints and a pool valve exception was granted because of natural topography.
In other action, the planning panel approved a minor subdivision/lot split involving 15.8 acres on Parker Road owned by Mike Cheselaka, which would create parcels of 2.23, 7.45, 3.04 and 2.75 acres. A house is on the latter property.
Deep Woods Drive is to the east of the parcels in question.
According to Januska, the lot split meets the requirements for the R-1 residential zoning district, including minimum lot size of 1.5 acres, frontage of 150 feet and front, side and rear setbacks.
Pending items on the panel’s agenda are: Preliminary and final site plans for Renaissance Park at Geauga Lake East Phases 1B, 2 and 3, a final site plan for JW Congregation Support for a proposed Kingdom Hall and a preliminary site plan for a new showroom at Ganley Chrysler.
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