Wooster council clarifies zoning changes

Before voting to adopt proposed new zoning changes Monday, Feb. 2, Wooster City Council members wanted to clear up some details they say have confused residents.

“There’s rumors flying around everywhere about stuff that’s not true,” council member Michael Abnernathy said just minutes ahead of the resolution being approved.

Abernathy’s statement followed about 20 minutes of council members clarifying areas of confusion they have heard around the city.

“There’s flexibility in the plan still,” Abernathy said, adding there aren’t going to be all kinds of jammed-in duplexes, triplexes and quadplexes in the two new transitional districts all of a sudden.

A mixed-use area won’t require commercial use. If a structure doesn’t work as commercial, it can be converted to residential, according to Vincent Marion, manager of planning and zoning for Wooster, clearing up another area of misunderstanding.

When asked by Abernathy what drove the zoning changes, Marion said it wasn’t necessarily all about creating more housing in the city and more affordable homes.

“It’s also going to allow some commercial, with standards to be met, on a first floor with some residential above it,” Marion said. “Today, that’s not possible.”

Marion said the city will take the next year or two to study the effects of how the new zoning is working and has the flexibility to make edits and tweaks.

“I think everybody is going to be looking at this and judging it by how it works,” Mayor Robert Reynolds said. “Five years from now, will it have made a positive impact? If so, there might be less resistance in those areas that were originally proposed (for a transitional district but were dropped in the process based on public feedback).

“On the other hand, if it doesn’t move the needle at all or, God forbid, be a detrimental effect, we surely are not going to ask to expand it.”

Another area council member Drew Paul wanted clarified was zoning for Cornerstone Elementary School.

“I’ve had several people approach me about Cornerstone,” Paul said. “At some point that building is going to come down.”

Zoning hasn’t changed for Cornerstone; it is still zoned as a community facility, Marion said.

The process to rezone a property in the new transitional districts won’t be more difficult than it was previously, according to Marion, responding to this concern from council member Jennifer Warden.

“The R2 district is not going away,” said council member Steven Huszai, who introduced the resolution two meetings earlier, trying to clear up another misunderstood part of the new zoning.

Before the Feb. 2 approval, Wooster had two primary residential districts: the traditional quarter-acre lots of R1 and the smaller lots with the same standards of R2, which a majority of R2 zoning has been eliminated and merged with R1 in the new plan, but not all of R2 zoning — some R2 zoning will remain.

The beginning of the meeting started without any confusion as two Wooster Police Department officers were recognized for outstanding work.

Ptl. Tom Sereika received the Life Saving Award for helping a suicidal female at Wooster Memorial Park on the evening of Jan. 1 this year, and Ptl. Connor Orr was given the 2025 Officer of the Year and the Award of Honor, which the department considers its highest accolade, according to Police Chief Matt Fisher, who presented the awards.

“In 15 years as chief, I’ve never given this before; it’s a first,” Fisher said about the Award of Honor, which Orr earned for the way he handled an April 2025 traffic stop that turned into a shootout with the unregistered driver and a suspect of an earlier law-enforcement pursuit. While the driver was shot, Orr wasn’t during the incident, but Orr’s police cruiser was, so he couldn’t pursue the driver who fled but was eventually arrested after Orr radioed for help.

The next Wooster City Council meeting will be Tuesday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. because Presidents Day is Monday, Feb. 16.