Mentor Planning Commission Tables Bingo Hall

The Mentor Planning Commission tabled a conditional use permit request for a proposed bingo hall at 8357 Tyler Boulevard because of insufficient parking spaces and other parking lot issues.

The permit was requested by David Fassett and Gary Meivogel of Freespace LLC. They were involved in operating bingo events at Lake Catholic. Proceeds raised at the bingo hall would benefit the in Mentor and Caroline's Kids Pet Rescue in Concord Township.

The proposed bingo hall would be in a 7,000-square-foot vacant warehouse, which is in a 26,930-square-foot building on a 2.83- acre campus of four buildings. Located on the campus are other businesses such as Digging Dogs, Horizon Childcare, Lake Blue Inc., and a church.

“These people (Fassett and Meivogel) are friends of mine so this is very difficult for me,” Sheri Amkuda, co-owner of Digging Dogs, told the commission at its meeting Thursday at . “This is nothing against them and what they are doing. (But) there isn’t enough parking for what they do.”

The campus has 140 parking spaces. Amkuda said she needs about 50 parking spaces or more on multiple days, while the other businesses and church take up an additional 50 parking spaces. Four dumpsters also take up about eight parking spaces.

The bingo hall organizers said they would expect up to 150 players. Based on that estimate, city code would require the bingo hall to maintain 90 to 140 additional parking spaces.

“As far as parking goes, we did not come in here with the intent to ramrod our needs in front of all the other tenants,” said Meivogel.  “We plan to work with them. We want to work with the tenants so we don’t conflict our (bingo) sessions with their hours of business. I’m sure we can work something out.”

However, Planning Commission Member Katherine Cimperman said there are other problems with the parking lot with grass growing through the asphalt and no parking stripes on the lot’s pavement.

“There (also) seems to be a lighting issue,” she said. “If we are going to have people (bingo players) staying until midnight, I think we need to have lights in the parking lot.”

Meivogel said he talked to the building’s landlord, Randy Viviani, about striping the parking lot and installing new lights.

In other action, the planning commission approved architectural review plans of a 5,000-square-foot warehouse at 7870 Division Drive. The warehouse will be constructed and used by Matrix Tool & Machine.

The commission also approved a final site plan and architectural review for a 5,000-square-foot dental office building at 8346 Mentor Avenue.