Committee accepts new YSU-area CVS store plan

Youngstown city council will have to give the final go-ahead for the CVS store on the North Side.

Staff Report

YOUNGSTOWN — Changes in some building plans for a CVS store on the North Side prompted a city committee to approve the new and improved plans by the construction company.

The building plans for a 11,945-square-foot CVS store on 5th Avenue, next to Stambaugh Auditorium, were accepted by the design review committee at a special meeting Tuesday.

Plans were introduced earlier this month to the committee by Orion Development of Weirton, W.Va., the project’s developer, and CVS. But issues arose with the store’s loading docks and garbage storage area as well as its exterior color.

The developers were 85 percent successful in remedying the committee’s recommended changes, “with the blessing of CVS,” said Ken Hrabar of Orion.

In the new plans, the building would be a shade of tan, rather than the proposed red color. The committee was able to choose from three samples, all that would mesh better with the coloring of Stambaugh.

The biggest objection raised by design review committee was the location of the proposed store’s loading docks and garbage storage, which would face Park Avenue, which runs along the side of Stambaugh Auditorium and its gardens.

The new plans showed added landscaping of trees that will grow to about 8 feet, which will hide the loading docks and garbage storage.

“We have an obligation to protect the integrity [of the Wick Park area],” said Phil Kidd, a design and review member.

“I commend you on the landscaping ... from what I can see here it looks pretty good,” he said.

Although the committee has approved the building plans, CVS and Orion will not move ahead with construction until Park Avenue and Caroline Street become two-way streets.

“We can’t start construction until the streets are two-way,” said Hrabar .

Youngstown City Council will have to approve the ordinance to make the roads two-ways, said Charles Shasho, deputy director of public works and city engineer.

Making the roads two-way is doable and council would review the ordinance at its March meeting, he said.

Other ideas for the building, such as fencing around the parking lot and more elaborate landscaping, were discussed briefly.

“The stage is set to make all these things a possibility,” said Hrabar of the other proposed ideas by the committee.

The developers are under financial constraints, but in the future meeting those design needs won’t be an issue, he said.

CVS wants to have the building operational by the fourth quarter of this year, Hrabar said.