Owners request permit to facilitate synagogue’s move to campus

Beth Abraham Synagogue’s plans to move to Oakwood came one step closer on Aug. 2, when the Oakwood Planning Commission voted 3-1 (with one absence) to recommend that the Oakwood City Council grant the new owners of Sugar Camp a special-use permit to allow religious institutional uses in two buildings on the site.

Beth Abraham has entered a purchase agreement to secure Sugar Camp Building B and Building C from congregants Sandy Mendelson, Allan Rinzler and Lee Schear, who purchased the site in May.

According to Oakwood City Manager Norbert Klopsch, the recommendation will be presented to the Oakwood City Council at its public meeting on Monday, Sept. 18 at 7:30 p.m.

The planning commission’s vote included the condition “that the applicant present a complete and detailed site development plan by no later than the December Planning Commission meeting.”

More than 50 members of the community attended the public hearing portion of the Aug. 2 meeting.

Currently, Sugar Camp’s use is limited to “educational, training, laboratory and/or research center of business and industrial organization,” as originally approved in 1969.