WARREN Residents oppose zoning change

The mayor said he wants to spare the community from further job loss and blight.
By PETER H. MILLIKEN
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
WARREN -- City officials face a problem: how to keep Riverside Square occupied and retain its jobs and tax dollars, while keeping its owner, tenants and nearby residents happy.
"Keep it under the [zoning] variance rules. Keep it so that the things that go in there are for the neighborhood. And that's what we want. We do not want that commercial," said Robert Weitzel, a nearby resident, who opposes rezoning the premises from residential to commercial.
"If he wants to leave, let him leave," Weitzel said of building owner Daniel Cadle, generating applause from the audience.
"If he does leave, all of the tenants have to be evicted. Why? Because we have operated under the variance system. The variance stays with the owner. So, if he leaves, the tenants are evicted," said Mayor Hank Angelo, during a Monday evening meeting at Emerson Elementary School.
"You've got 20 agencies inside that building with 400 jobs. Who's going to buy the building if the tenants are already gone? My concern is an empty building staring at you," the mayor said, adding that he thinks the zone change can be accompanied by restrictions that would protect the neighborhood.
The building generated almost $93,000 in city income tax revenue last year.
Agencies in building: The former St. Joseph Riverside Hospital at 1400 Tod Ave., N.W., houses professional offices, a commercial laundry, a moving company, VA clinic, an Internet service provider, a service agency for blind people, and offices for SCOPE, Belmont Pines and Fairhaven.
To achieve more flexibility in renting space to businesses, Cadle, of Newton Falls, wants city council to rezone the property from residential to commercial. The city planning commission supports the change, but council rejected his request in May.
Cadle has threatened to close the building, saying he's losing money on it.
Tenants don't want the expense and hardship of having to move.
Neighbors' concerns: Area residents want to maintain their neighborhood as it is and worry that commercial businesses would increase traffic and encroach on the residential community.
"We care for people who are unemployed, underemployed, disabled and able-bodied and people who have defended our freedom. Think about the present and the future of your city," pleaded April Reisinger, a blind neighborhood resident and executive director of Eye Deal Connections, a service agency for blind people in Riverside Square. She too received applause.
Monday's meeting was called by Councilwoman Virginia Bufano, D-1st, who said her phone has been ringing repeatedly concerning the fate of the building in recent days.