If all goes according to plan, the former Regina High School on South Green Road in South Euclid could be filled with students again as soon as the start of the 2027-28 school year.

The plan belongs to Yeshiva Derech Hatorah, an Orthodox Jewish school that seeks to relocate its boys’ elementary school serving grades pre-K to 8 from its Warrensville Center Road campus in Cleveland Heights to the former Regina building.

To do so, the school is requesting to rezone the property from the current single-family residential to conditional use.

According to South Euclid Planning and Development Director Michael Love, the property had reverted from Regina High School’s conditional use to its original single-family residential zoning once the school was vacant for six months. Regina closed in 2009.

YDT purchased the building for $2.2 million in late July from Akron Children’s, which outbid YDT for the nearly 50-acre former Notre Dame College campus, which includes Regina High School.

Because YDT’s purchase includes the building, but not the 7.7 acres on which it sits, the South Euclid planning commission delayed making a recommendation on YTD’s rezoning request last month until after a public hearing on Oct. 8 regarding Akron Children’s request to rezone the property in order to move forward with a master plan.

Brian Lapolla, Akron Children’s vice president of operations, said at that public hearing that YDT will likely have the option to purchase Regina’s 7.7-acre parcel once Akron Children’s firms up and determines how to include in its master plan an access drive on the Regina parcel on the northwest portion of the L-shaped property.

“It’s a great complement to the campus,” Dinger told the planning commission. “When the lot split is completed, Yeshiva Derech Hatorah can have the opportunity to take full ownership.”

YDT Executive Director Rabbi Sender Stoll did not speak at Akron Children’s public hearing, but told the Cleveland Jewish News when the school was purchased that it was “kind of a square that sits on its own.”

Regina’s 120,000 square feet is triple that of YDT’s boys’ school, which is 40,000 square feet. Stoll said its enrollment forecast to reach 750 students “over the next handful of years” necessitates a larger building.

Stoll said that YDT’s “extensive renovation” for the Regina building is on hold pending the outcome of its conditional-use zoning application.

YTD’s first business transaction with the city of South Euclid occurred in 2019, when it purchased the former St. Gregory the Great School at 1545 S. Green Road for its pre-K to 8 girls school.

Stoll told the CJN that as soon as Akron Children’s outbid YDT for the Notre Dame property, he began discussions about the Regina building, and that YDT and Akron Children’s had come to a “mutual agreement” on the sale price. Akron Children’s paid $8 million in late June and YDT paid $2.2 million for the school in late July.

At last month’s public hearing regarding YTD’s conditional-use application, a few neighbors expressed concern about the impact of 750 students and employees on local traffic during school bus and parent drop-off and pickup times. The school will be open six days a week, Stoll said, four full days and two half-days.

The planning commission was to vote on Oct. 22 on YTD’s conditional-use application along with Akron Children’s application. It seeks to rezone its Notre Dame property from single-family residential to mixed-use transit-oriented development.

Dinger told the planning commission that the MU-TOD designation would allow the hospital’s master plan to “create the most diverse range of uses.”

Planning commission acting chair Daniel Monroe reminded those present at the hearing that the planning commission is an advisory body, not legislative, and that the final decision will rest with South Euclid City Council.

Keith Benjamin, city of South Euclid director of community services and development, said that YDT already has a strong presence in the city.

“They are good neighbors and a valued community partner,” he told the CJN. “Its students, families and leadership are part of the fabric that makes South Euclid such a diverse, inclusive and thriving community and we look forward to learning more about their plans.”

Akron Children’s provides update on its purchase of former Notre Dame College. Page 54.