Planning panel backs designation of district

City council must give final approval to the designation.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Despite the objections of some nearby property owners, the city's planning commission recommends that city council approve a proposal to link Youngstown State University to downtown.
The commission met for more than two hours Tuesday hearing supporters and opponents discuss the project, known as the Lincoln-Rayen-Wood development district.
Final approval on designating the district as a community redevelopment area must come from city council. Council could set a timetable for voting on that designation at its meeting today.
Council will consider four proposals today on one phase of the project, extending Hazel Street from YSU to downtown. The project is expected to cost about $2.5 million.
The project focuses on 38 acres bounded roughly by Commerce Street and Lincoln, Fifth and Wick avenues. The city is proposing the project, but YSU is heavily involved with it.
Blighted properties
The plan identifies 12 properties in the area as being in a blighted or deteriorated condition.
The city is looking at buying seven properties on Wood Street and Lincoln Avenue between Elm and Phelps streets.
Of those seven buildings, YSU owns one, the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown owns two, Grenga Machine & amp; Welding Co. owns one and uses it for storage, one is a commercial building, one is vacant, and one is an apartment building.
The city wants to buy the buildings and demolish them for a Hazel Street extension. If a purchase can't be worked out, the city would have the option to take the properties through eminent domain if council approves the project's designation. Eminent domain is the right of government to take private property for public use.
The diocese is working with the city and YSU to obtain the vacant property, which used to house a car dealership, in exchange for the diocese's two properties.
Building plans
YSU wants to build a new College of Business Administration on Phelps Street between Rayen Avenue and Wood Street. The university also wants to have Hazel Street, which runs north from downtown to Wood Street, extended farther north to Lincoln Avenue to connect with campus walkways.
About a half-dozen property owners in the area objected to the plan, fearing their buildings and/or land could be taken from them through eminent domain.
Joseph Grenga, owner of Grenga Machine, said he is not interested in selling his building.
Planning commission members said the decision to recommend the designation was a difficult one.
"I have some reservations about what's happened, but I'm voting to approve the plan with reservations," said Angelo Pignatelli, a commission member.
skolnick@vindy.com