Strongsville auto repair shop to relocate from West 130th Street to Pearl Road

STRONGSVILLE, Ohio -- An automotive repair shop that has been in business for about four years in Strongsville plans to relocate from the east-central part of town to the south end.

Chieffalo’s Auto Repair, now at the northwest corner of Ohio 82 and West 130th Street, received permission in September from the Strongsville Planning Commission to build a new shop on Pearl Road between Drake and Boston roads.

“I’m leasing my current building, and I figured it would be better to own the property and my own building,” Sam Chieffalo, owner of Chieffalo’s Auto Repair, told cleveland.com Monday (Oct. 24).

“Also, Pearl is a better location and it’s less than a mile from where I live,” Chieffalo said.

Chieffalo said he hopes to start construction on the new repair shop within the next two to three months and to open in March. He said land clearing will begin soon.

According to the Cuyahoga County Fiscal Office, Chieffalo’s Properties LLC, a limited liability company, bought the vacant Pearl parcel in June for $105,000. The lot, off the west side of Pearl just south of Ellsworth Drive, measures about 1 1/3 acres.

Chieffalo needed and received a conditional use permit from the planning commission to build the new shop. The Pearl lot is in a general business district, where auto repair businesses are permitted only on a case-by-case basis.

Also, the city’s Board of Zoning and Building Appeals approved a zoning variance for Chieffalo. City code requires a lot width of at least 150 feet, but the board allowed a 96-foot-wide lot in this case.

During a Sept. 21 zoning board meeting, board member Ken Evans said that Chieffalo’s lot, along with other parcels along Pearl, existed before the city changed the minimum lot width to 150 feet.

“This board has granted variances (for Pearl lots) because otherwise people would not be able to use the property,” Evans said, according to meeting transcripts.

A long process

Chieffalo initially introduced his relocation plan to the Strongsville Architectural Review Board in July 2021. At that time, he was seeking approval for a sign on the new building.

Chieffalo told the ARB that he had gained more than 1,200 customers since he opened at Ohio 82 and West 130th. He also rents U-Haul trucks from the site, although that won’t happen at his new Pearl location.

Chieffalo said he lived in Strongsville and that his wife also operates a business in the city.

“I love it here and I like this (Pearl) location a lot better,” Chieffalo told the ARB, according to meeting transcripts. “It kind of puts me in the heart of Strongsville and lots of homes in that area to obviously make my business better. I would be next to (Sgt. Clean) Car Wash (and) that kind of benefits both of us.”

At the Sept. 21 BZA meeting, board member John Rusnov asked, “And you’re not going to put up large spotlights shining in everybody’s windows and you’re not going to have 43 dozen people working there?”

“There are two of us,” Chieffalo answered.

Nevertheless, John Talan, a Pearl resident, objected to Chieffalo’s plan, pointing out that it didn’t comply with the 150-foot-lot-width requirement.

Also, Dale Levy -- president of the homeowners association for the Woodside Crossing residential development off Pearl northwest of the Chieffalo parcel -- said he was concerned about how noise from the auto repair shop would affect Woodside Crossing residents.

“We came here for peace and quiet, and it’s quickly turning into an industrial area,” Levy told the BZA. “We certainly don’t want to impede Mr. Chieffalo’s ability to grow his business and move his business, (and) we appreciate the city’s efforts to bring businesses in to build our tax base.”

Levy said Woodside Crossing residents didn’t think Sgt. Clean Car Wash was going to be noisy, but with the car wash’s 26 vacuum hoses about 20 feet from some back yards, it has been so.

Matt Parnell, Chieffalo’s building contractor, said the car wash blocks Chieffalo’s Pearl site from Woodside Crossing, so noise from the auto repair shop isn’t expected to be an issue.

Also, the number of cars going into Chieffalo’s location on Pearl won’t be anywhere near the number of cars circulating through the car wash, Parnell said.

“I don’t think they (residents) are concerned about the number of cars,” Strongsville Assistant Law Director Dan Kolick told Parnell. “They’re concerned about the bay doors being kept open while you’re operating on cars.”

Parnell said Chieffalo’s at its current location is not excessively noisy, adding that the sound of electrical tools probably won’t get past the car wash noise.

Read more from the Sun Star Courier.