BUCYRUS — The local organization BORN (Bucyrus Outreach & Restoration Network) is in the planning phase to construct a facility, the Hope Center, to house the county’s homeless on land that was donated to the group.
About 10 members of BORN came to the Bucyrus City Council Joint Committee meeting Thursday evening to request a zoning reclassification for the properties at 251 and 273 Whetstone St., in Bucyrus. The properties currently are zoned neighborhood residential but would need to be rezoned as neighborhood business.
Lucille and Gerald Dicks, who own abutting properties, are not happy with the proposal.
“They are going to cut down all of the trees. There are other places they could put this. There is a place right out by the farm store,” Lucille said.
Gerald said there will be increased traffic which is not needed in the Whetstone Street area with the railroad tracks nearby.
“And drugs. We have enough drug problems on that end of town we don’t need more coming in,” Lucille said.
Tabby Linn, a volunteer of BORN, said that there are many reasons people become homeless and that there is a need for the shelter that will house families along with individual men and women.
“People may have a fire, or flood, get kicked out of their house, or their house was condemned. We’re trying to bridge a gap because too many people fall through the cracks,” Linn said.
She said the goal at the shelter would be to assist people in getting back on their feet through training and re-training programs for employment, budgeting and more.
BORN executive director Eliza Cole said she has been working with the Columbus Shelter Board to become a good neighbor and partner with people who already live in the neighborhood on Whetstone Street, north of the tracks and across the street from Auto Avenue.
“We sent out letters in March to all people living within 300 feet of the property to explain our plans,” Cole said.
She said plans include an event center that will hold about 60 people, an office and training area along with separate housing areas for men, women and families.
Landyn Hill, the city’s zoning administrator, said the issue with the property is how to zone it. He said he is not sure that it is best to rezone it neighborhood business.
“The council may want to consider other options such as giving it a new zoning code,” Hill said.
He said the use of the property will be more for transitional housing and residential than business. The other option could be for each property of this type to apply to the board of zoning appeals for a conditional use variance.
Platting committee chair Mark Makeever said that J and F Construction, the company that is working with BORN on the plans for the complex, should bring preliminary sketches to a meeting of the committee in the near future.
“That way, we can have a better idea of what you are proposing,” Makeever said.