WHITEHALL PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES OCTOBER 16, 2014
The Whitehall Planning Commission meeting of OCTOBER 16, 2014 was called to order by Chairman Anderson at 6:30 PM. Chairman Anderson asked for a roll call. Anderson– Present Brown –Present Wills–Present Jordan-ABSENT Blake-Present Woodruff-Present Roberge –Present Chairman Anderson acknowledged that all members were present except for Mr. Jordan who notified Mrs. Netotian prior to the meeting. ****Mr. Woodruff is filling in as Interim Service Director**** Chairman Anderson asked for a motion to excuse Mr. Jordan. Mrs. Blake motioned and Mr. Woodruff second. Upon a vote Mr. Jordan’s absence was excused. Chairman Anderson asked for a motion to approve minutes from September 4, 2014. Mr. Brown motioned and Mrs. Blake seconded. Voting went as follows: Anderson- Yes, Brown-yes, Woodruffabstained (was not a Commission member in September 2014), RobergeYes, Wills-Yes and Blake-Yes. The minutes were approved. Chairman Anderson announced Case# 688- SAGI Realty, LTD is seeking a Re-zoning at 57 Robinwood Ave and surrounding parcels including 090-000645, 090-002178, 090-005472 & 090-005533 from Office District (OD) to Limited Commerce District (LCD). This property is currently owned by SAGI Realty, LTD. Thom Stevenson, Executive Director and idea originator of Chef Vet, presented the case.
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He started by saying he wants to move his nine million dollar project to the corner of Robinwood and Broad St. at the old Safe Auto building. The concept he is presenting is a holistic and synergistic effort to re -introduce disabled veterans back into the workforce. The facility will have a café, bakeshop, catering arm and a full-scale teaching kitchen and training center. Chef Vet’s goal is to create a five acre comprehensive campus to train disabled veterans in the art of Culinary. It’s a project he has been working on with a non-profit board for over two years. He said they are currently at the stage where they want to occupy the 40,000.00 sq. ft. Safe Auto building. That building will house the corporate office along with research and design kitchen, a fitness facility, a training center and a medical wing. They will construct a 10,000.00 sq. ft. new build LEED Certified Platinum facility which will feature a café, bakeshop, catering service, organic roof-top garden and an educational teaching kitchen with a fullscale training facility to teach disabled veterans in the art of Culinary. They chose Whitehall because of its long history in supporting the Defense Supply and VA hospital. He feels Whitehall is a great place to bring this operation which will bring over 100 jobs to the area. Chef Vet’s mission is to train disabled veterans and integrate them back into society. After a nine month training program with a skilled team of professional chefs they will re-enter the work force. Chef Vets has partnered with 16 companies who will employ them once training is complete. Mr. Stevenson stated that over 22 veterans are committing suicide every day. Ohio has 971,000.00 veterans alone and the most of them are between 18-20 years old with the majority of them are under the age of 35. Their hope is to provide training for these veterans to learn a skill at no charge to them. It will also bring jobs to Whitehall. Mr. Stevenson said he wishes Whitehall will support this goal and become long term partners with them.
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He said Chef Vets will be about a 2.5 million dollar revenue generating facility. Their hope is to turn it into a profitability status in year two with year one providing infrastructure to the project. Mr. Stevenson was asked to speak about the appearance from the Broad St. entrance. He said from Broad St you would see a brand new 10,000.00 sq. ft. LEED Platinum floor design facility. Turner Construction will build the 7 million dollar facility along with Korda Engineering. Mr. Stevenson said the top of the building will resemble an American Flag. He said they will have an organic garden on top of the building with a Greenhouse to the front. To the far right of the building will be a Community garden and they are partnering with a company who specializes in working with disabled people. Vice chairman Brown asked if there would be an entrance on Robinwood and Broad St. Mr. Stevenson said the main entrance to the existing building (Safe Auto) would be from Robinwood Ave. The new build entrance would be from Broad St with the reasoning that The Café needs the Broad St presence. Chairman Anderson asked if they foresee any opportunities to work with High School youth for internship possibilities. Mr. Stevenson said they absolutely are in favor of working with young people and they are putting together a Veteran Board with the eldest member being 91 yrs. old the youngest being 22 yrs. old and they will be partnering right beside the youth. He mentioned they were going to do a new mobile to support the military arms and he said students can help work on that project. Mrs. Blake asked if there would be an opportunity for Whitehall Veterans who may not need the services but would like to assist with projects. He replied every tech working will be a Veteran, with food service being the main focus but there would be many other jobs needing done. Vice Chairman Brown asked if there would be any partnership between the VA and their facility. He said there is a member of the Board, Darren Summer, who was a Major Lt. in the Military works with folks with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic brain injury. He mentioned there will be many partners on this project like Job & Family Services &
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Veterans Affairs. Mr. Stevenson said he expects when they move into the neighborhood more and more veterans will be reaching out for help because they will be providing services in the most crucial time for them. He said right now it is taking 13 to 14 months for them to get benefits and his medical wing will be providing services pro bono in that 14 month period to make sure they get stabilized. Mr. Brown asked who would own the facility. He said it will be a nonprofit entity who will own it. Chef Vet reregistered for their 5013C and they are waiting to receive it. They will be leasing from SAGI until they can buy it. Chairman Anderson asked when they wanted to be up and operating. Mr. Stevenson said they have been working with the Director of Job and Family Services, who spent 8 years in the Air Force, for the past two months and he is a great supporter of the project. He said they have also been working with the Franklin County job and workforce. They hope to be hiring their first employees in December and they want the building to be operational in January 2015. Mr. Stevenson said they will bring the first group of 25 Veterans on in December. They will go through an intake process to determine where they’re at, to make sure they aren’t homeless and to make sure they have a way to buy groceries and other things. They do this process in partnership with the VA. Once they have them ready to go and know they are self- motivated and in a safe place they will move into the program. They will have 25 for about a month then they will take on their next group. They move on to nine month training and then they will move out into the workforce. They have 16 entities who have agreed to hire their veteran trainees. The new kitchen will be 100% ADA accessible. If the veterans are blind, have prosthetics or are in a wheelchair they will all be able to work safely in the new kitchen. Chairman Anderson asked about the hours of operation. The new build will be open 6 days a week and closed on Sundays. They will open at 6:00 am and close down at 7:00 pm.
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The old building will have the fitness center and will be open 7 days a week from 6:00 till 11:00 pm. Mr. Stevenson talked about their gourmet cheesecake line that is custom designed by their team of chefs. Their cheesecakes will be shipped all over the Country. Another product line of Chef Vets is the gourmet dog treats line. Chef Vets will also have a catering line where they will ship boxed lunches all across the City. Mr. Stevenson said Chef Vets will be changing the look of food on Broad St because their line will be health conscious and will be using their own produce which is grown in their greenhouse. Mr. Stevenson said all the equipment is being custom designed with retina scans, biometrics & robotics. He said that because they are a teaching facility all the equipment will come to them first to be tested and worked with and sent back for evaluations. Chairman Anderson asked how many employees they would have. He said there will be 12 in the Medical wing, 22 in the Fitness center plus some others equaling 55 employees right from the start and hoping to have 100 by the end of the year. Job & Family Services and AARP will be helping pay some of those salaries. Mr. Stevenson said he had hoped to make this building a living building which is where every bit of power you use you would create it on site but with expenses as such they will do what they can with their budget. What they can do is place solar panels on the roof and in the parking lot when they can. He said this location will serve as a shining example of how to do sustainable food service with nothing else like it in the Country. He said he has 25 years in the food and beverage industry. He is currently working on his PHD. All the culinary training the Veterans receive will be free to them. They have a partner who will provide the text books, Job & Family Services will help with the training class and Chefs who are donating their time to run the class. Gail Martineau, Community Affairs Coordinator in the Development Department, said she is speaking on behalf of the Development
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Department for Whitehall. She said she and Zach have been meeting with Thom with Chef Vets since early in the year and was very impressed with his vision. She said Whitehall is a Military community with DSCC and the VA hospital here & she feels Chef Vets would be a great addition to make us an even stronger Military community. Mrs. Blake added she felt this project would offer great support to our Veterans. Mr. Stevenson added he is very passionate about this project and feels he can change the lives of so many veterans with his vision. Chairman Anderson asked for a favorable motion to approve Case 688 as presented. Mr. Roberge motioned and Mr. Brown second. Voting went as follows: Brown-Yes, Woodruff-Yes, Roberge-Yes, Wills-Yes, Blake-Yes & Anderson-Yes. Voting was unanimous Case#688 was APPROVED. Mr. Woodruff mentioned this case would be heard by Council on Tuesday Nov 4, 2014. Chairman Anderson asked if there were any upcoming cases. At meeting time there were two cases turned in and another one was being discussed.
As there was no further business, Chairman Anderson entertained a motion to adjourn the meeting. It was moved by Mr. Woodruff and Mr. Wills seconded. Upon a vote, the meeting was adjourned at 7:00 PM. Next meeting date is Thursday November 6th.
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Whitehall Planning Commission Minutes — MARCH 6, 2014
APPROVED __________________, 2014 Respectfully submitted,
________________________________ Terry Anderson, Chairman
___________________________ TERESA NETOTIAN, SECRETARY
