State senator urges Wal-Mart to scrap Canfield plan
Wal-Mart plans to go through the process of
asking for a zone change.
By JEANNE STARMACK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
CANFIELD — Wal-Mart should respect the wishes of the community and not try to build a supercenter here, a state senator says.
State Sen. John Boccieri of New Middletown, D-33rd, said Wal-Mart should respect the pending vote of Canfield Township trustees and follow the will of the people who do not want the company to move its 187,000-square-foot supercenter into the area.
“Township and city residents have made clear their opposition to Wal-Mart moving its supercenter into the community, and Wal-Mart should respect that,” Boccieri said.
“If the township trustees vote to deny the zoning change, then Wal-Mart should respect the decision of the community and not throw its weight around,” he added.
“Disregarding the vote by local governments, ignoring the wishes of residents, and pressing on with multiple appeals will harm the community and hurt local business. There are many communities that want a Wal-Mart supercenter, and the retail store should pursue those opportunities,” he continued.
Wal-Mart is proposing to build a supercenter, which will include a grocery store, on about 27 acres in the township between Raccoon Road and the Ohio Turnpike and behind businesses on U.S. Route 224.
Fourteen of those acres are now zoned residential, and the company needs a zone change to business designation.
But residents have protested the plan since it came to light when Wal-Mart applied for a recommendation for the zone change with the Mahoning County Planning Commission in October.
The process of obtaining a zone change begins with the county commission, then moves to the township zoning commission, another recommending body. The township trustees have the final say.
As it seemed the planning commission was about to recommend denying the change in October, Wal-Mart immediately pulled its application.
Company representatives appeared before the township zoning commission at a workshop meeting in November and were told by that panel to go back to the county commission.
After two public meetings the company hosted this week at McMahon Hall south of Canfield, Ron Mosby, Wal-Mart’s senior manager of public affairs, indicated the company would do just that.
Virtually all of the comments and questions for Wal-Mart reps at the public meetings were negative. Residents’ comments centered on concerns such as increased traffic in an area that’s already congested, more stress on safety forces, and what kind of impact the big-box store would have on a residential area directly to the west of it on Raccoon Road.
Mosby said after the second meeting Wednesday that he would take the comments from the two public meetings back to corporate headquarters, and the company would begin preparing another proposal for the county commission.
“Clearly, we have no application pending right now,” Mosby said Friday in response to Boccieri’s statement. “I know he [Boccieri] would respect the right of any party to petition government for any issue. There is a process we are allowed to pursue and that is up to us.”
Township Trustee Bill Reese said Boccieri “pretty well covered it.”
“It’s very clear people do not want a Wal-Mart,” he said. “Wal-Mart is in for a big fight.”
Trustee Paul Moracco cautioned that the trustees must keep an open mind before their vote. The county prosecutor, which is the township’s legal adviser on Wal-Mart, has told them not to say too much, he said.
Trustee Randy Brashen was not available to comment Friday.
Reese said Mosby has indicated he will present the company with an alternative of building within the property’s commercial zoning without requesting the zone change.
Mosby would neither confirm nor deny that.
“I had a discussion with him [Reese], and one option discussed was could something be done in the properly zoned area,” Mosby said. He said that if that were so, Wal-Mart would not need the township’s approval to build.
Mosby said, though, that it isn’t likely the company will consider that option.
starmack@vindy.com