Rooming House Conversion Denied on Summit Street

The Kent Board of Zoning Appeals denied a request to convert a single-family house into a boarding house zoning status Monday.

The board reconvened a meeting held earlier this year to debate a request from North Royalton, OH, resident Donald Vargo, who asked for the change in status for the house he owns at 315 E. Summit St.

Vargo asked the zoning board in March for two variances in March that would have allowed the change in zoning status, which essentially would open the house to the possibility of renting to multiple individual tenants.

Vargo, who did not speak Monday, said he wanted the conversion because all the houses adjacent to his property are operating as boarding houses.

Zoning board chairperson Elizabeth Howard said within the immediate vicinity of Vargo's house there are nine houses zoned single-family, nine houses zoned as boarding houses and six duplexes.

Howard said Vargo's request did not meet the three base criteria the board sets in determing whether a variance should be granted. Those criteria include: whether there are practical difficulties or unnecessary hardships on the property; whether there are exceptional circumstances surrounding the property or request; whether or not granting the variance would be detrimental to the neighborhood.

Zoning board member Diane Werner said the city's administration and boards and commissions work to try and preserve the single-family houses within Kent's neighborhoods.

"We try very hard to maintain the neighborhood feeling in Kent," she said.

Vargo's requests for variances, which were related to minimum lot size requirements for boarding houses, failed for lack of a motion from the zoning board.

"The default answer is therefore ‘No,'" Howard said.