River Gate moving forward; city asks for appeal dismissal

Construction of the River Gate apartment building being planned near Ohio University's South Green is moving forward while the city of Athens seeks dismissal of an administrative appeal of a zoning variance for the project.

Attorneys for the Summit at Coates Run apartment complex, which is located off of Richland Avenue, have appealed the variance in Athens County Common Pleas Court.

The variance in question was granted by the city's Board of Zoning Appeals in September for the proposed $15 million, 3.5-story apartment building that is slated to replace the building that now contains the New Life Assembly of God church at 10 S. Green Drive.

Homestead U, LLC, of Columbus, which owns River Gate LLC, originally requested a variance allowing a 4.5-story building, with 82 percent lot coverage, which refers to the footprint a building makes on its property site. Maximum lot coverage allowed by city code is 60 percent.

That variance was rejected. After redrawing plans, Homestead U brought the proposed building down to 3.5-stories, matching code requirements, and requested a variance for 77.5 percent lot coverage. That variance was granted by the Board of Zoning Appeals.

City Prosecutor Lisa Eliason filed a motion to dismiss the Coates Run appeal last month, stating that the company lacks standing to make such an appeal.

The standard for having standing, Eliason argued, is that the third-party property owner must have participated in the zoning board hearing and be directly affected by the board's decision.

Coates Run maintains that representative Pam Wells did attend the September hearing and objected to the variance, but Eliason said that the only person to speak against it was attorney Kenneth Ryan.

With regard to being directly affected, in the appeal of the variance, the Coats Run attorney argued that his client's Summit property is "located in close proximity to the subject property and is directly aggrieved by the (zoning board's) approval of the applicant's second variance request."

He called the board's decision "arbitrary, capricious, unsupported by the preponderance of substantial, reliable and probative evidence on the whole record, an abuse of discretion and contrary to law," and said it should be reversed by the court.

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River Gate moving forward; city asks for appeal dismissal