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Variances approved for AK Steel

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Vivian Moon View Drop Down
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    Posted: Jun 12 2015 at 1:21pm

Posted: 12:00 a.m. Friday, June 12, 2015

Variances approved for AK Steel project

By Ed Richter

Staff Writer

MIDDLETOWN 

Middletown Planning Commission Wednesday approved the variances on the city’s architectural and landscaping standards for the new 135,500-square-foot AK Steel research and innovation center that will be visible from Interstate 75 just north of the Ohio 122 interchange.

While City Planner Marty Kohler has administrative authority to approve plan reviews if it meets city standards, any variances that are requested outside of those standards need to be approved by the Planning Commission.

“Staff recommends approval due to the unusual circumstances and the clients needs which are justified,” Kohler said.

Doug Kramer of Al.Neyer LLC, whose company is the design build contractor, said some of the variances concerning landscaping, screening and buffering as well as issues with the facade siding and lighting, would interfere with AK Steel’s desire to showcase its new facility by maximizing its visibility from Interstate 75 as well as its product. He said the siding for the steelmaker’s facility will be built with mostly architectural metal. Another variance was sought to adjust the building location on the parcel.

Kramer said additional variances were also being sought to allow rooftop machinery to support the research activities going on inside the building, which is located off of Union Road.

Commission member Ann Mort raised a concern about the rooftop units. However, Kramer said they would be hard to see as I-75 is lower than the building and that the rooftop machinery would be screened as best as possible.

The new $36 million facility will have laboratory and office space, a test manufacturing facility, a loading and delivery area, conference rooms and a small auditorium. Kramer said the building is also designed for future expansions as needed and will have a loading dock, drive-in doors, a stormwater detention basin and a parking lot for 145 vehicles that can be expanded to add 25 more parking spaces.

A groundbreaking ceremony is tentatively set for later this month, according to AK Steel and city officials. Construction is projected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2016,

About 75 researchers at the company’s current facility on Curtis Avenue in Middletown will move to the new facility once its done, and an additional 15 new full-time research positions are expected to be added by the end of 2018.

City officials has said the new research center would retain more than $7 million of payroll, which could increase to $8.4 million when additional employees may start work by the end of 2018. In addition, the city is projecting to see an additional economic impact of about $2 million when contractors start work at the site.

 

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FmrMide81 View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote FmrMide81 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun 13 2015 at 8:55pm
Let's get real, Ann-even if AK were powering that place by burning orphans and puppies the city would approve it. The sight of a couple rooftop units is a cute ploy to try to show that you and your ilk are doing your job-bullpuckey as Col. Potter used to say...
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VietVet View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote VietVet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun 14 2015 at 8:44pm
Let's see. Encourage, show support, add incentives, and beg companies to either locate here, or, as with AK, be extremely pleased that they didn't go south on I-75 to locate their research facility.........

And then, after they have decided to stay, throw silly little immature roadblocks in their way like Kohler rule architecture and landscaping, and possibly making them weary about their decision to stay in town, especially when the city is hard pressed to get anyone to locate here due to the condition and reputation of the city. Kohler is probably the primary reason why business has been driven away from Middletown with his nonsensical little rules.

Real intelligent.

Screening? Buffering? Lighting? Rooftop machinery?........leave 'em alone before they change their minds and leave for the land of less nonsense.

Stop the little self-important gestapo planning committee attitude and start acting like they are welcomed here, and for god sake, leave them alone, offering help along the way if they ask as they set up shop. Perhaps a cooperative, less demanding attitude from Kohler and his little tribe would work wonders on potential incoming businesses.
I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.
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over the hill View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote over the hill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun 16 2015 at 3:20pm
You right VV
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acclaro View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote acclaro Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun 16 2015 at 3:54pm
Come on Vet, have you not seen the truck trailers all over town used as billboards, tacky signs everywhere with the vertical flag appearance, tall and thin, in dental office yards, you name it? This city has so much advertisement around without restrictions, its a laughing stock. This was a done deal years ago, to a point I have heard behind North Pointe LLC, is considerable conflict of interest, buyers also doing the public's business. Hightower's digital sign is a distraction and the signs around the Renaissance area dwarf an outdoor movie projection screen. The worst in town is on Briehel across from Famous Recipe and Little Ceasar's. Middletown doesn't have standards. 
'An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.' - Winston Churchill
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VietVet View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote VietVet Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Jun 17 2015 at 6:01am
Based on your examples concerning non-restricted signs, I guess it would be safe to say that Kohler and his Planning Committee have a selective process where they single out certain targets for restrictions and rules and leave others alone. I do know, by reading some of the Planning Committee meeting notes on the city web site that they clamp down on the property owners in the "Historical districts" and the downtown business people and the facades by over scrutinizing them and remember them giving the VA Clinic a hard time about a trash dumpster landscaping issue a few years back.

The location on Breile across from Famous Recipe and Little Ceasars is the Middletown Shopping Center with Burger King and O-Reilly's as the outbuildings. Not sure what you are referring to.

According to past Planning Committee meeting notes, Hightower went to the Planning Committee about the height of his sign from I-75 and got the height restriction lifted I believe. His complaint was that his sign was too low to be visibly effective for advertising from the freeway as I recall.

Some of these signs are billboards that have been there a very long time. Probably grandfathered in. Don't know if the Planning Committee has control over those or not.
I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.
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