The Mansfield Planning Commission voted Tuesday, Nov. 10, to approve a conditional use permit for a $21 million, 65-unit senior housing complex beside Mosaic Church, clearing the way for the Mosaic Senior Apartments to break ground in late spring 2027, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
The three-story, 60,000-square-foot building is planned for 300 W. Third St., at Benton and West Third streets, according to the Mansfield News Journal. It will serve seniors ages 62 and older who meet specific income guidelines, and all 65 units will be one-bedroom apartments, project officials told the commission.
The one-bedroom-only design is deliberate for the population the building will serve: project officials told the commission every unit is a single-bedroom home for a senior resident or couple, according to the Mansfield News Journal, in a 60,000-square-foot building — roughly 900 square feet of building per home once hallways, common areas and services are counted.
The development has already received a tax allocation for low-income housing from the Ohio Housing Finance Agency, the Mansfield News Journal reported — the state financing piece that makes income-restricted rents workable on a project of this size.
A conditional use permit is the city’s way of allowing a use that is not automatic on a parcel — in this case housing of this density — subject to conditions the commission attaches. The four variances granted alongside it adjust the usual height, density and access rules for this specific site, and the required green space screen on the west side is meant to buffer the three-story building from its neighbors, per the Mansfield News Journal’s account of the meeting.
The development team includes Mike Bier of CHN, David Teufel and Scott Bofinger of LGA Partners and Joe Goerndt of Karpinski Engineering, according to the Mansfield News Journal. Teufel is the project applicant and is partnering with the neighboring Mosaic Church at 296 Park Avenue West.
Mosaic Church Pastor Jeff Wright told commission members that CHN is a partner with the Greater Cleveland Food Bank, which is how the referral that led to the project came about, the Mansfield News Journal reported. Wright told the commission that in conversations with CHN, the church realized the two shared a heart for the community and a desire to bring more housing to Mansfield to improve the neighborhood.
CHN is a Cleveland-based nonprofit affordable housing services provider that also works in Cuyahoga, Lorain and Medina counties, along with Pittsburgh and Detroit, according to the Mansfield News Journal.
The church partnership gives the project an anchor that a stand-alone development would not have. Mosaic Church sits immediately next door at 296 Park Avenue West, and Pastor Wright’s account to the commission — that the food-bank partnership with CHN is what connected the church to the developer — explains how a congregation ended up helping bring 65 homes to its own street, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
Alongside the conditional use permit, the commission approved four variances covering height, density and ingress and egress, and required the developers to provide a green space screen along the property’s west side, the Mansfield News Journal reported.
Commission member Matt Stanfield also asked project officials to add sidewalks to make the site accessible, according to the Mansfield News Journal — a practical point for a building whose residents will be 62 and older, many of them walking to the church and neighborhood destinations nearby.
For Mansfield, the project adds 65 income-restricted homes aimed squarely at older residents on a site next to an established neighborhood church, at a time when housing costs remain a central question for Ohio cities of every size — a debate playing out in the capital as well, where a Columbus Council overhaul has raised big questions for housing development.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on: the permit, the variances and the state tax allocation are approved, and the development team, site and unit count are set. Still to come are the project’s final construction timeline, the income limits attached to the apartments, and when leasing information will be released for prospective residents.
What happens next: the developers are targeting a late spring 2027 groundbreaking at Benton and West Third streets, with the commission’s conditions — including the west-side green space screen — built into the project as it moves toward construction.