Church gets OK to build hall

Neighbors were impressed by a plan to address drainage problems.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- A church has approval to build a fellowship hall on its Idlewood Avenue property after being denied that approval in September.
The township zoning board of appeals voted 5-0 Thursday to allow the Abundant Harvest World Outreach Center at 104 Idlewood a conditional-use permit for the residential-zoned neighborhood.
Neighbors had originally objected to the plan in September because of worries about drainage problems in the area, not enough parking, and the idea that the proposed 4,800-square-foot steel building didn't fit the character of the neighborhood.
Plans changed
But changes in the plan, including a drainage retention system, a smaller, one-story wood and vinyl building and more parking won the board over this time.
Neighbors at the hearing still spoke out against the plan.
"These people went to a great extent to make us happy, but it's still a residential neighborhood," said Bob Horvath of 116 Idlewood. "I'm just against it in my back yard."
Marvin Jones, who lives on North Yorkshire Boulevard to the immediate north of the church property, said he was worried the drainage system, which includes a parking lot that will retain water up to nine inches and allow it to drain slowly away through a pipe, might back up into his garage. He also said he thinks the building will "look like a warehouse."
But the neighbors said they were impressed with the plan for the water retention system, and zoning board members said the system, designed by engineer J. Robert Lyden for Crick Construction of Salem, should even take care of the drainage problems neighbors have now.
Evelyn Horvath and Nancy Clever said their homes have no basements, and their kitchens and family rooms have flooded.
Clever said that when she and her husband, Dennis, moved to 124 Idlewood 44 years ago, there was no water problem. But a blacktop driveway and a parking lot built on the church property caused the flooding. Abundant Harvest did not own the church at the time; it moved from Youngstown to the property five years ago.
Seen as improvement
Lyden said the parking lot that slopes down to a drain in the center will take care of drainage for the new building, and an underground retention system will take care of drainage for the building that is there now, and should eliminate all flooding problems.
The drainage system, said the church's pastor, the Rev. JoAnn Pangio, will cost $53,000. The building will cost $169,000. The Rev. Mrs. Pangio said the church is not sure when construction will start, but it will be some time this year.