Trustees OK land swap with schools
Bike Town, Ohio, is in Austintown.
AUSTINTOWN -- Trustees agreed Monday to a land trade with the school district.
The district wants to trade 21 acres on South Niles-Canfield Road for 9.11 acres on New Road near the Leonard Kirtz School.
Schools Superintendent Doug Heuer told the board of education in December that he was attempting to negotiate the swap. The 21 acres had been considered last summer as a possible site for the district's new transportation center, but the board discovered that the property is 75 percent wetlands. Nothing of any significance can be built there, Heuer said.
The township, however, could use the property for green space or a park. Trustee chairman Bo Pritchard said that the trade is the best way to get use out of the community's properties.
The school district could use the New Road property for recreational space and eventually another elementary school, Heuer said.
In other business, trustees heard a complaint by a Howard Avenue resident that villa homes in a planned unit development are less than the required 40 feet from Howard Avenue yards. There are six units built so far behind Howard Avenue in the Villas at Spring Lake off Fitch Boulevard. Pauline Hruby said that even though the foundations are in compliance with the 40-foot setback, the roofs of the villas extend 4 more feet. Trustees and zoning inspector Mike Kurilla said they would look into the matter.
Trustees named six acres off Interstate Boulevard near Quaker Steak & amp; Lube as "Bike Town, Ohio," in honor of Harley Davidson/Buell of Youngstown's plan to build a 42,000-square-foot store there. Kurilla said the company should be picking up its permit to build the 3.2 million complex next week. The store is moving from its Canfield location on U.S. Route 224.