Golf course planned on former Scout land

The developer is seeking to have the agricultural area rezoned.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- A developer seeking to create a multizoned community along U.S. Route 224 has bought 84 acres of Camp Stambaugh owned by the Greater Western Reserve Council of the Boy Scouts of America.
CTW Development Corp. seeks to develop an area with offices, a surgery center, restaurants, retail businesses, a residential neighborhood and a golf course between the Ohio Turnpike and Summit Road.
The land purchased from the Boy Scouts lies at the southern end of the proposed development area. CTW officials said it would be used to create an 18-hole semiprivate golf course.
The 84 acres had been farmland that was been used by the 275-acre Leffingwell Road camp, said Gary Erlinger, the council's Scout executive. CTW officials said they retain an option to buy several more acres.
Erlinger said the acreage was purchased in 1985 for investment. It was sold to CTW for $672,200. Half of the money will be placed in an endowment fund for camp operations, Erlinger said. The rest will go to capital investments.
The CTW proposal would line U.S. Route 224 with businesses. Already in the plan and open are a Wendy's restaurant and a Dunkin Donuts. Mark Figurelli, CTW's vice president of development, said tenants are eager to lease the buildings planned to be built within the current 500-foot business zone.
Beyond that zone, he said, CTW seeks to place more businesses, a hotel, 64 condominium units, about 200 single-family homes and the golf course.
Rezoning needed
For the plan to work, the township would have to rezone the areas from all-agricultural to business and residential zones.
Though the Canfield Township Zoning Commission approved the zone change requests earlier this month, the requests now go before the board of trustees during a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Oct. 28. The Mahoning County Planning Commission endorsed the plan in September.
CTW has already spent $250,000 on infrastructure on the initial 500-foot commercial area and a streetlight to ease congestion, Figurelli said.
CTW President Charles T. Whitman said Canfield Township needs larger business areas to bring in tax dollars. In 1995, he said, 1.5 percent of Canfield Township was zoned for business and commercial use, compared to 5.5 percent in Austintown and 11 percent in Boardman.
Whitman said the proposed development would generate $257,000 per year in property taxes, with $170,000 going to Canfield schools.
A zoning proposal that would have increased the boundary for business development by 300 feet was rejected by voters two years ago by a nearly 2-1 ratio.