Golf dome plan fails to garner panel's support

2/17/2005

A renewed effort to leave an inflatable golf dome standing year-round in South Toledo received no new support from a City Council committee yesterday - a little over two years since an identical request was voted down.

Greg Fish, owner of the South Toledo Golf Course, 3915 Heatherdowns Blvd., is seeking council approval to expand his permit for the temporary dome from six months to 12 months - the same request voted down by council in November, 2002.

Council's zoning and planning committee agreed to forward the request to the full council without recommendation. It comes up for a vote March 8.

District 2 Councilman Rob Ludeman said there appeared to be no support for the expansion of the permit, despite the owner's concerns about a decline in the golf business.

"I don't think that a lot has changed here, but I do have a real concern about the future of that land," Mr. Ludeman said.

Mr. Fish said he needs the space to provide a practice range for his customers during the golf season, and to support his golf retail business.

"Our business is in jeopardy. I'm trying to save it," he said.

Neighbors said the dome is out of place in a residential area.

"How does a six-story dome differ from a six-story brick building?" asked neighbor Jeanne Arnos, who lives on Timberlawn Road. "It makes a mockery of our zoning laws."

Mr. Fish in 1994 received a permit to put the dome up in November and take it down in April. He said setting up and taking down the dome costs $20,000 and is damaging to the dome.

Also at the zoning and planning committee meeting, a proposal to add new apartments to the Inverwest development south of Dorr Street near the Inverness Club drew strong opposition from neighbors.

Developer Herb Fultz's original proposal for 240 units at 1301 and 1302 Linden Lane was rejected by the Toledo Plan Commission as too dense. Since then, the proposed plan has been scaled back to 180 units.

Steven Herwat, executive director of the Toledo Plan Commission, said the new number is allowed under a community-use plan that was approved in 1981. The developer is seeking rezoning from duplex residential to multidwelling residential.

Neighbors worried that the units don't have the amenities to qualify as upscale housing, and will bring down property values, while causing traffic congestion.

The proposal was forwarded without recommendation to the full council.

In other action, the committee voted 6-0 to recommend approval of:

●A special use permit for a convenience store at 30 South St. Clair St. in the newly developed St. Clair Village.

●Rezoning from limited industrial to downtown commercial for the Berdan Building, 1 South Erie St., and adjacent parcels, that would allow for commercial and residential development.

●A special use permit for a convenience store at 242-252 Fearing Blvd.