WEST SIDE Carwash proposal creates conflict

Some residents complain they never received notice of the variance appeal.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A mix of newer and older houses and a home for multiple-handicapped people make up a stretch of Canfield Road near Bears Den Road.
The exception is the small plaza at the corner, with a dry cleaner's and beauty and pizza shops.
That's more than enough commercial activity for those who live there.
Oppose businesses
West Side residents are rising up against a proposed self-service carwash and lottery-newsstand next to the plaza on Canfield Road. The development would sit between the plaza and the home for the handicapped, and across from single-family houses.
Residents object to what they say will be excessive traffic and noise the 24-hour carwash would generate.
"This is just not the vision we have for our neighborhood," said JoAnn Stock, who lives across the street.
Douglas Rogers is seeking a variance for the carwash project from the city zoning appeals board. The variance would reduce the required minimum lot size from 35,000 square feet to 21,722 square feet.
The property is zoned for general business, the result of a court order some years ago, residents said. But it's not large enough to accommodate the proposed business, so a variance is needed. Rogers couldn't be reached to comment.
Trouble foreseen
Doug Pesa, a city police officer who lives on Canfield Road near the proposed site, said job experience shows that troublemakers tend to gather at 24-hour carwashes after dark. That doesn't belong in a mostly residential area, he said.
The intersection already is too busy with traffic anyway, he said.
"You're just going to increase the congestion," Pesa said. "It's just going to be a hindrance."
Gail Riess, executive director of the handicapped home, Gateways to Better Living, is concerned the semicircular driveway will become a turnaround point for traffic.
Loud car engines, radios and headlights at the carwash all are concerns, too. The eight people who live there have mental and other handicaps and are considered medically fragile, she said.
"I have a lot of fears about that," Riess said.
Councilman Michael Rapovy, D-5th, also will register his objection to the project.
The carwash doesn't need to be near Canfield and Bears Den, he said. There is more appropriate land available up the road in Cornersburg for such a development, he said.
The appeals board is to take up the case at 2:05 p.m. Tuesday in city council chambers.
Variance deferred
The appeals board deferred the variance last month, saying it wanted a more detailed development plan.
That was the first some residents heard about the idea, complaining they never received notice of the variance appeal.
The city must send notices of appeals to adjacent property owners and usually notifies those within a 250-foot radius, said Bill D'Avignon, city deputy director of planning.
D'Avignon acknowledged that tax maps used to generate notices sometimes don't reflect newer development, such as some of the housing on Canfield road. That may be why those property owners didn't get notices, he said.
rgsmith@vindy.com