Residents say they oppose only the size of PUD

Residents say they were told their development would have a smaller PUD.
By NANCY TULLIS
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD -- Some Canfield Township homeowners want it known they aren't opposed to all development, just one that isn't what they were promised.
The residents hope Chris Abraham of TC Quality Homes will withdraw his plans to seek a zoning change Thursday that would allow him to increase a planned unit development in Westbury Park off Gibson Road from 11 acres to 45, a 410 percent increase in the planned unit development size.
One resident said the zoning change would allow the developer to make Westbury Park a planned unit development with some single-family homes rather than a development of single-family homes with a small planned unit development.
Residents said the homes in the planned unit development will be long, narrow homes on smaller lots than those built on the perimeter, making the homes of the PUD much closer together.
Abraham has said he thinks people are upset because they've heard rumors he's going to build cheap houses. He said the homes in the PUD will be a lot like the home his company built for the Novak family in Boardman for "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."
Want it smaller
Some residents said they asked Abraham to consider increasing the planned unit development only by a few acres. Township Trustee Bill Reese said he made the same suggestions in a recent half-hour discussion with Abraham.
"We're not against development, and we're not against this developer," Reese said. "We like the work they do, but a 45-acre PUD is ridiculous."
Westbury Park residents and other township residents are concerned that approval of a plan much different from the one they were sold will set a precedent for future development of the township. They said the new plan, with the significantly larger PUD advertised after the November zoning meeting, shocked them.
Resident Carol Potter denied that residents are opposed to the planned unit development because they want to keep the development exclusively upscale.
"This is not an elitist movement," she said. "This plan is not even close to what we were told [when we bought our homes]."
Safety concerns
Residents also worry that having that many homes in an area with only one access road is a hazard in case of fire.
Barry Shick said he's had nightmares about fires in the development with houses so close together the fires moved quickly from house to house.
Shick, his wife, Lisa, and two children moved to Canfield Township last summer after Shick commuted four years from Ashtabula to Youngstown and his job as pharmacy director for St. Elizabeth and St. Joseph health centers. They like the rural, small-town atmosphere of the township that is also close to major highways and the arts and entertainment venues of Youngstown, Pittsburgh and Cleveland.
"We liked the concept of a development that was mostly R-1," he said, meaning residential, single-family homes. "What is planned now destroys the character of that."
The township zoning panel denied Abrahams' original request Dec. 8, 2005, and he made modifications.
Reese said that he can't say for sure how zoning board members will vote, but that the request won't get past the trustees.
"As trustees we try to anticipate what developers will want," Reese said. "The township is going to grow. There's nothing we can do about that. But we want good, viable PUDs in the township, not a township that is a PUD."
tullis@vindy.com