Neighbors are fighting over the future of a vacant CVS in Cleveland

Neighbors on Cleveland’s West Side are fighting over the future of an old CVS in a zoning battle that could have implications for other properties across the city.

The owner of the vacant drugstore on Madison Avenue near West Boulevard wants to transform it into a gas station. Images presented at a public meeting show a Shell station with four pumps and, possibly, a fast-food pizza chain and a bank.

But the city’s regulations don’t allow a gas station there, on a street where planners changed the rules years ago to encourage more walking and cycling. And in May, the Board of Zoning Appeals rejected the property owner’s request to make an exception.

In a typical case, the gas station group would have challenged the board’s decision in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court. Instead, Councilman Danny Kelly stepped in with legislation that seeks to change the property’s zoning – and remove it from the surrounding pedestrian overlay district.

Kelly says he’s being aggressive about filling empty buildings, as Cleveland grapples with the loss of drugstores and other retailers. But the city’s planning department believes he’s setting a risky precedent by stripping protective rules off a single property, without a firm site plan.

The City Planning Commission unanimously rejected the rezoning on Aug. 16. But that won’t stop the legislation from heading to council for debate – or a vote.

“I am not for keeping a building unoccupied without an alternative,” Kelly said during an interview Thursday.

“No matter what I do, the community will be involved,” he added. “But I think I need to change the zoning a little bit to have the opportunity to put something there.”

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'People are really worked up'

That prospect has neighbors fiercely divided. In May, roughly 30 people testified or submitted letters in favor of the project for the zoning board hearing. More than 50 people said they were opposed.

This week, that disagreement boiled over on social media as neighbors lashed out at the councilman, the property owner and each other.

“It’s become political,” said Therese Pohorence, who lives nearby and has owned rental properties in Cudell since the early 1980s.

She’s tired of looking at the old CVS, which has become a dumping ground for trash and a magnet for graffiti. And she likes the gas station concept.

“We need this corner cleaned up to be a successful neighborhood. This is our front door,” she said.

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Paula Furst, on the other hand, is appalled.

“People are really worked up. People are very unhappy,” said Furst, who lives a few blocks away.

She and other opponents are worried about traffic and car exhaust. They’re alarmed about safety, too, for pedestrians passing by and children cutting across the block. The site sits just south of Cudell Commons Park, a city recreation center and an elementary school.

“If and when this does show up before council, the neighborhood is going to turn out in force,” Furst said. “I can tell you that.”

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'A precedent'

Part of the challenge is that the property is located at the edge of two council wards. It’s in a tail-like outgrowth of Ward 11 – Kelly’s ward – but it's surrounded by Ward 15. Kelly says he is willing to talk to everyone, but he’s focused on his own constituents.

“My ward right now hasn’t got a lot of development,” he said.

His legislation would change the property’s zoning from local retail to general retail, a broader category that allows gas stations. The proposal also would strip it out of the pedestrian retail overlay district, which the city added to the street in 2013.

“For me, this is a precedent that could really impact the future of zoning,” Joyce Pan Huang, the city’s planning director, said at the public meeting on Aug. 16.

“If there is a use that pops up in the future, this practice could really impact these parcels one by one, and it becomes a little bit more arbitrary,” she added, describing a process known as spot zoning.

The property owner hasn’t formally submitted the gas station plans to the planning department. Conceptual images shared with the zoning board show a Shell station with four pumps and two charging stations for electric vehicles.

Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals

'We're allowed to disagree'

Public records show that a company called Shaker Madison LLC bought the CVS site in December.

Ibrahim Shehadeh, the contact listed on the company’s building permit application, did not respond to an interview request. Sam Mohammad, who represented the company at the zoning board hearing, did not return a phone call to his business in North Royalton.

Kelly said the project could be a $2.5 million to $3 million investment.

“What has gone on that everybody looks at gas stations in Cleveland like they’re terrible?” he asked. “I don’t hear that problem in Lakewood or other places.”

His legislation, co-sponsored by Councilman Anthony Hairston, hasn’t been set for a public hearing yet. It's headed to council’s development, planning and sustainability committee, which Hairston leads.

Asked whether he has enough votes to move the controversial proposal forward, Kelly laughed. “We’ll see,” he said.

“I know things have gotten very hot here,” he added. “But that’s OK. That’s what’s great about the United States of America. We’re allowed to disagree. And we’re allowed to passionately disagree.”

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'What might be'

Furst and other opponents aren’t backing down. They’re planning a protest.

She’s also fed up with looking at the old CVS. But she sees other possibilities for the site. Before the gas station plan popped up, an animal hospital and a boxing gym looked at the property - but passed.

“We could get another local market in this space,” Furst suggested. “We could get something that’s more oriented to the community. … We have lots of really community-oriented businesses that love being here. And we’d love to see another business like that. We’d love to see someone step up and say, ‘Hey, for a reasonable rent, I’d love to be in that space.’ It’s a great location. There’s certainly lots of exposure.”

Pohorence, meanwhile, doesn’t want to wait anymore.

“I’m tired of no action and people talking about what might be there in the future,” she said. “The gas station with the carryout food and the check-cashing will be a now thing. Not 20 or 30 years from now. And I think we need a ‘now’ business here.”