BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio – The city should not ask Drees Homes why it dropped one of four parcels that originally made up the site of a planned townhome subdivision on Ohio 82, just west of Broadview Road.

That advice came Dec. 18 from Richard Pignatiello, the city’s assistant law director, and was directed to the Broadview Heights Planning Commission. He said the elimination of the fourth parcel might become subject of a civil suit between private parties that would have nothing to do with the city.

“It’s absolutely none of our business,” Pignatiello told the commission. “We don’t want to know what’s going on. We’re not getting involved as a city or as a planning commission.”

Pignatiello said the commission should only rule on Drees’ most current plan, which consists of three parcels and 36 townhomes, instead of the original 42 townhomes. The proposed development is called Ledges of Broadview.

Commission Chairman Richard Porter welcomed Pignatiello’s recommendation to leave out discussion of the fourth parcel.

“I want to knock that down and not even hear it,” Porter said.

The commission, saying Drees failed to provide enough information about the proposed subdivision, tabled the plan.

It’s not the first time city officials have expressed lack of interest in the dropping of the fourth parcel. In August, Councilman Brian Wolf did the same during a City Council committee meeting.

However, James Conlon — an attorney representing Matthew and Ashley Fiala, who own the property Drees ejected from the development — disagreed that the matter was none of the city’s business. He has said that exclusion of Fiala’s land from Ledges of Broadview would turn the Fialas’ lot into a residential island, diminish their property value and count as a taking of land.

Conlon added that the city would be involved in any lawsuit filed over the matter.

Ashley Fiala, appearing before the commission Dec. 18, said she and her husband were formally objecting to Drees subdivision plan.

“If this development is permitted to go forward, the value of my property will be severely diminished due to the city’s interactions with Drees,” Fiala said, reading a prepared statement. “This conduct amounts to a partial regulatory taking of my property, which is in conflict with the U.S. Constitution.”

Meanwhile, Gill Construction Inc., which claims it had been working with Drees on development of the fourth parcel before Drees eliminated that parcel from the plan, has also hired a lawyer and has formally objected to the development.

Tangled legal web

On May 7, Broadview Heights voters rezoned the proposed Ledges of Broadview site from a single-family district, which prohibits townhomes, to the city’s unique Town Center Special Planning District Zone B, which permits townhomes.

At the time, the plan consisted of four parcels totaling 16 acres just west of the Weeping Cherry Village apartments. Louis Colantuono, who owns three of the four parcels, and the Fialas, who own the fourth, sent letters to the city supporting the project.

After voters approved the rezoning in May, on June 24, Thom Sutcliffe, land acquisition manager with Drees in Brecksville, sent a letter and blueprint showing the proposed Ledges of Broadview to the city. The project would now consist of 36 homes instead of 42, and three parcels instead of four, on 13 acres instead of 16.

In the June 24 letter, Sutcliffe did not explain why the plan had been changed or even acknowledge that a change had occurred.

“Given the city wanted all four properties part of the rezoning and the project, and based on such representations moved forward with the rezoning, it appears there may have been misrepresentations to council that need to be clarified and addressed,” Anthony Vacanti, an attorney representing Gill Construction, said in a July 1 letter to the city.

At the August council committee meeting, Conlon, the attorney representing the Fialas, said both Gill and Fiala had a contract to include Fiala’s land in the Ledges of Broadview project. Sutcliffe, who was at the meeting, said, “That is false.”

Ashley Fiala, at last week’s planning commission meeting, said Drees won her and her husband’s support for the zoning change by promising to buy their property for a fair value and give them a lot to build a new home.

“It is my belief that Drees never intended to pay us fair value for our property,” Fiala told the commission.

Fiala said Drees worked with city officials to push through the zoning change based on a false application showing 42 townhomes on four parcels.

Fiala added that several neighbors were not provided written notice of the proposed zoning change before it went to the ballot, although city officials said correct notification procedures were followed.