New Sports Center off Pearl Road Still Moving Ahead

A plan by two Strongsville men to build a sports center on Progress Drive is still alive and moving ahead.

The Strongsville Planning Commission last week recommended rezoning a 2-acre parcel behind Olympia Candy for the 22,000-square-foot Strongsville Performance Sports Center.

A zoning snafu threatened the project, but it appears the path has smoothed.  

Walt Rapacz and Jeff Zbydniewski, who submitted plans to build on Progress Drive, want to give Strongsville kids another place to practice basketball, volleyball, batting, soccer and badminton.

"The city has been very gracious in allowing us to work with them," Rapacz said.

The snafu: When Rapacz and Zbydniewski purchased the land at auction last fall, it was listed as being zoned General Industrial, a district that allows recreational facilities as a conditional use.

The partners discovered when they went to the Planning Commission earlier this year that the parcel had been rezoned a few years ago to Commercial Services.

Complicating the situation further, City Council is considering legislation that would remove recreation centers as a permitted use in the industrial zone.

The partners hired attorney Bruce Rinker, who in March asked City Council in March to "start a discussion" about how to "mesh the city's policy and this project."

Rinker said that if council no longer allows recreational facilities in industrial zones, "you're really taking this type of (athletic) use off the books altogether."

The land around the site is already zoned general business and residential.

The developers are seeking to have the land rezoned to industrial, then will ask for a conditional use permit to build their facility.

They had hoped to start work this year, but the rezoning has slowed their plans.

"We're patient men," Zbydniewski said. "Everything is moving forward and the city is working with us."