City council delays apartment vote

Published: Monday, 1/6/2014 - Updated: 1 minute ago

BY TOM TROY BLADE POLITICS WRITER

Toledo City Council put off until its next meeting the vote on a proposed apartment building on West Bancroft Street near the University of Toledo after several newly sworn-in councilmen asked for the delay to get more information.

The delay occurred when a majority of council voted down a motion to hold the vote at its meeting last Thursday, after first apparently becoming confused veterans as well as newcomers by what it was voting on.

Council swore in five new members Thursday night.

Developers are seeking to demolish a former night club, coffee shop, and other buildings on Bancroft near campus for the $27 million construction project to put up a 143-unit building designed to appeal to college students.

The developer needs a special-use permit and zoning of mixed commercial-residential on the 6-acres at the southeast corner of Bancroft and Westwood Avenue.

The plans won approval from the city plan commission and from councils own zoning and planning committee, where it was the subject of about 90 minutes of discussion.

But council has been peppered by complaints from some neighbors in the adjacent Bancroft Hills subdivision who say the project will worsen the problems linked to student housing in the area, as well as compete with existing student rentals.

Mark Rose, a Toledo lawyer representing the builder, Guy Totino of Cleveland, said the project will be first-class, which he said appeals to a trend among college students.

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City council delays apartment vote