Former UMCH site in Worthington: Lifestyle Communities taking pitch to City Council

Lifestyle Communities, the development company behind the proposed redevelopment of the former United Methodist Children’s Home site at 1033 N. High St. in Worthington, is taking its latest proposal to Worthington City Council after receiving poor feedback from the city's Municipal Planning Commission in October.

Lifestyles’ third proposal to turn the former UMCH site into a mixed-use residential and commercial development received a unanimously negative recommendation Oct. 14 from the MPC to recommend the project to Worthington City Council for the approval of a planned-unit development zoning designation for the site.

The project needs a planned-unit development zoning designation to move forward.

In January, Lifestyles opted for no vote to be taken on its second proposal by the Architectural Review Board and MPC. This time, the company is taking it to council in a public hearing scheduled Dec. 13.

“My feeling is MPC rejected their plan, so they are appealing it to City Council, which is their right,” council president Bonnie Michael said.

ARB and MPC members cited concerns with the latest proposal’s building density, the lack of continual usable open space, the height of several of the proposal’s structures and its connections to neighborhoods as reasons for the MPC’s unanimous rejection.

An attorney retained on behalf of Lifestyle Communities could not be reached immediately for comment.

Michael said the Dec. 13 hearing will be a complete review of Lifestyles’ proposals, where council will have the notes from the MPC’s review in October available for reference.

“It’s a complete review where they go through it and say why they feel their plan is good,” she said.

Upon conclusion of the hearing, council will have the option to vote yes or no regarding whether to approve the project for planned-unit development zoning or decide that revisions to the proposal are needed.

City planning and building director Lee Brown said council would consider such factors as the density and height of buildings, open space and the connectivity to neighborhoods when weighing whether to approve or reject the proposal.

"Those are kind of the big-issue topics," Brown said.

Michael said that during the public-comment session of the hearing, anyone in attendance would be afforded five minutes to state their thoughts on the matter.

sborgna@thisweeknews.com

@ThisWeekSteve

This article originally appeared on ThisWeek: Former UMCH site: Lifestyle Communities taking pitch to Worthington council