City officials on Tuesday approved a conditional use request to allow an office in the former Burd’s Cleaners building.
The Columbus Board of Zoning Appeals consented to the request brought forward by the applicant, Ryan Furr of RFC Properties.
Furr said he intends to remodel the building at 1129 Washington St. and use it as an office for editing as part of his company that specializes in video production, photography and graphic design for a number of local corporate clients.
The property is located in the Commercial: Neighborhood (CN) zoning district. Most of the surrounding properties are also zoned CN, with residential zoning to the east.
The CN district has a “fairly limited list of permitted uses,” noted planning’s Melissa Begley.
Permitted uses in the CN district include personal services uses, like a dry cleaners or photo studio, restaurants and small scale retail uses.
Planning staff recommended approval in their report, and board members primarily were to consider if there was enough off-street parking.
An office use requires three parking spaces for every 1,000 square feet of gross floor area. The former Burd’s Cleaners building is 2,082 square feet in size, meaning a minimum of seven required parking spaces.
A site plan showed six parking spots, but planning staff determined that only five can actually be provided.
However, the zoning ordinance also allows 20% of public parking spaces within 300 feet of a given property to count towards the minimum. There are about 18 on-street spaces within 300 feet, meaning an additional three spots could be counted towards the allotment for a total of eight parking spots, satisfying the requirement.
As with all conditional use requests, the board must find the requested use meets the following criteria:
- The proposal will not be injurious to the public health, safety, and general welfare of the community.
- The development of the property will be consistent with the intent of the development standards established by the Zoning Ordinance for similar uses.
- Granting the conditional use will not be contrary to the general purposes served by the Zoning Ordinance, and will not permanently injure other property or uses in the same zoning district and vicinity.
- The proposed use will be consistent with the character of the zoning district in which it is located and the recommendations of the Comprehensive Plan.
A nearby neighbor, Andrew Counceller, said during public comment that he supported the project but asked if Furr would be interested in putting up a privacy fence between the subject property and his property line. Furr said a privacy fence is “definitely a part of our plan and extending it fully down the property isn’t an issue for us.”
Online property records indicate the property was purchased by RFC Properties in November 2023 for $100,000.
