During Monday’s meeting, the Delaware City Council approved a final development plan for T&R Properties to move ahead with the construction of a multi-use development on the longstanding Greenwood Lake property in Delaware.
Located at 340 Lake St., the site’s history dates back to the early 1800s when it was purchased by John G. Vergon in 1834 and maintained by his family for agricultural uses before eventually becoming a summer resort location. According to city documents, the Salvation Army purchased the property, likely sometime in the 1970s, and used it as a summer camp for disadvantaged children.
Redevelopment was set to come to the site in 2014 when the council approved a rezoning amendment, conditional use permit, and preliminary development plan to allow the property to be renovated to facilitate 24-hour supervised care short-term refuge clients of the Salvation Army. However, those plans ultimately fell through due to economic restraints, and the site has remained largely vacant for nearly a decade.
In 2020, the Ohio Department of Transportation had to perform an emergency repair of the dam, located under U.S. Route 42 on the western boundary of the site, in order to prevent “catastrophic failure” of the dam and highway, according to documents for the proposal. As a result, Greenwood Lake had to be permanently drained, and the Salvation Army sold the property to T&R last year.
Now, T&R Properties will construct two separate multi-family developments with a total of 528 apartment units, 64 townhomes, one single-family home, and a private clubhouse across three subareas on the approximately 61.63-acre site.
A preliminary development plan was approved by the council in May, and the plan has not been altered. Because there have been no changes to the plan, council members felt it appropriate to hold just one reading before granting final approval.
Subarea A, to be called Greenwood Commons, will span approximately 22.62 acres on the northern portion of the property and will contain 252 apartment units across seven three-story buildings and a clubhouse. A men’s shelter for short-term housing will also be included in Subarea A, and the seven apartment buildings will be clustered around the shelter.
Half of the units in Subarea A will be studio or single-bedroom units targeted toward workforce housing.
Subarea B, to be called The Flats at Sugar Run, will span approximately 34.21 acres and include 276 market-rate apartment units across three buildings, 64 townhomes, a lone single-family home, and the clubhouse. The townhomes will be constructed as 16 four-unit single-family attached buildings located near the southernmost boundary of the site to provide a transition from the existing single-family homes to the south of the site to the proposed apartment buildings in Subarea A.
The remaining land, which encompasses Subarea C, will be maintained as passive open space with a permanent tree preserve. It will also provide additional screening and buffering for the existing homes along Joy Avenue and Wilder Street.
Reach Dillon Davis at 740-413-0904. Follow him on Twitter @DillonDavis56.
