A new member took his seat on the Cleveland Board of Zoning Appeals, a variance for Dunkin’ Donuts was approved and a group home was denied a conditional use that would have allowed it to locate in the Cleveland/Bradley Industrial Park located south of APD40.

Vice Mayor Avery Johnson administered the oath of office to Dan Moore on Tuesday in the Council room at the Cleveland Municipal Building. Moore, 27, was appointed Monday by the City Council to fill the vacancy left by the late Bruce Renner who served on the board from 1994 until his death June 14. Moore is part owner of Akins Gas Co. and shares ownership in Leisure Time Bowling with his grandfather, Ben Moore.

Granting a setback variance to the Bluemont Group LLC clears the way for the Dunkin’ Donuts franchisee to further explore how a doughnut shop would fit on the property at 1695 25th St. N.W., the site of a former convenience store.

Lee Millwood of the Bluemont Group said the company needed the question of the variance answered before they begin the drawings. He could not provide any other details about when a Dunkin’ Donuts might open.

“We haven’t signed on the dotted line to buy the property,” he said. “But now we can get down to the nuts and bolts and see how the building would fit on the property.”

Bluemont Group owns six stores with one in Athens, two in Knoxville and three in the Chattanooga area.

“This will be our first store built from the ground up,” Millwood said.

The board denied a conditional use request by TME Heartland LLC for a residential care facility at 175 Industrial Court S.W. Doug Berry, Cleveland/Bradley Chamber of Commerce vice president for Economic Development, spoke on behalf of the Bradley/Cleveland Industrial Development Board, the entity responsible for managing the industrial park south of APD40. He said the IDB objected to locating a home for at-risk boys in the industrial park, “Primarily for safety as well as police concerns,” he said. “CPQ, Cleveland Tubing and Sunbelt Coatings have all stated objections. In fact, Sunbelt Coatings stated their reason for moving from Oklahoma was because of a similar action in an industrial park there.”

Berry said CPQ reported vandalism issues when a previous residential program was placed at the same location from 2004 to 2009.

“They’ve all expressed concern there would be youth present in the park where volatile materials are handled in the manufacturing process and chemical storage,” Berry said. He said the industrial development board received an application for a similar home to be located in the publicly owned portion of the park. According to the park’s bylaws a poll of tenants was taken. The results showed 100 percent rejection of allowing any type of residential encroachment in the park.

Margaret Schenk of United Knitting said the back of the manufacturer’s property is very near the proposed residential home.

“Let me tell you what’s in the back of our property. We’ve got a 30,000 gallon propane tank. We’ve got a hot oil boiler that is 475 degrees. We’re very concerned if we put, not only young boys near there that could climb our fence, but we’re concerned about our employees too,” she said. “There is a reason we have an industrial park. We are all like-minded industries and we know how to control these risks. That’s the reason we do not put facilities that are not as aware of all of these safety risks in an industrial park. We’re totally opposed to it and I think all my neighbors are.”

Concerning the one other agenda item, the board approved a setback variance on an unaddressed parcel on Neely Circle N.E., requested by Tim Maslov. According to staff reports, the lot is substandard because it is only 50 feet wide. New lots in the single-family zoning district are required to be 75 feet wide. Maslov’s request was to reduce the side setback down to 5 feet and reduce the front setback to 20 feet to match the fronts of existing residences on the same side of the street.