Friday, December 23, 2005
A study has determined the area is blighted and in need of redevelopment.
By HAROLD GWIN
Vindicator STAFF writer
YOUNGSTOWN -- Marie LaCivita fears that a proposed community development plan for the Lincoln-Rayen-Wood Development District could spell the end of her family's 60-year-old business.
The plan focuses on a 38-acre urban renewal area bounded roughly by Lincoln Avenue on the north, Commerce Street on the south, Fifth Avenue on the west and the rear of properties along Wick Avenue on the east.
It's a city plan, but it is tied closely to Youngstown State University's Centennial Master Plan, which calls for development in the targeted area.
Specifically, YSU wants to build a new College of Business Administration on Phelps Street between Rayen Avenue and Wood Street and wants to see Hazel Street, which runs north from downtown to Wood Street, extended farther north to Lincoln Avenue to connect with campus walkways.
Floral wholesaler
LaCivita fears her business, Youngstown Plant and Flower Inc. at 150 N. Rayen Ave., a floral wholesaler, might be lost to make way for the Hazel Street extension.
She and other property owners in the targeted area got letters inviting them to a public hearing Tuesday on the proposed Lincoln-Rayen-Wood Development District plan, but the hearing was postponed when it was determined that those who showed up knew almost nothing about the plan.
The hearing has been rescheduled for 1:30 p.m. Jan. 17 before the city planning commission.
LaCivita said she has looked at the 50-page document and is concerned that it may call for taking many properties in the targeted area.
Viable businesses that have been here for a long time should be allowed to remain, she said Thursday.
Owners of some of the vacant buildings and vacant lots in the area may be pleased that the city is looking at redeveloping the area and perhaps buying their properties, but the taking of her property would probably put her out of business, idling her 15 employees, she said.
Mayor reassures
Mayor George McKelvey said he hasn't had a chance to review the plan but offered some assurance that existing businesses wouldn't be forced to move against their will.
"I would never favor displacing a business, unless the business felt it was a win/win situation to relocate them and they were desirous of a relocation," he said.
Business concerns that they might be forced to move are premature at this point, said Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at YSU.
The draft plan that is the subject of the public hearing is just the first phase in a long urban renewal process, he said.
The document prepared for city consideration seeks only to determine if the targeted area is blighted and in need of some form of remediation, which could include renovation and demolition, among other things, he said.
Later phases would determine how that remediation should be implemented and how it would be funded, Morrison said.
The area is a mix of vacant properties, abandoned properties, some commercial businesses and some institutional facilities, including the YWCA, the property of the Diocese of Youngstown and some YSU-owned land.
The study determined that the area has sufficient deficiencies (deterioration and dilapidation of sites and buildings, obsolete zoning, lack of maintenance, and other issues) which, taken together, are "detrimental to the public health, safety and welfare and which impede the sound growth, planning and economic development of the city of Youngstown."
gwin@vindy.com