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Zoning code stupefies store owner, councilwoman
By DAVID SKOLNICK
YOUNGSTOWN
What do strip clubs, adult bookstores, liquor stores, bars, pool halls and secondhand stores have in common?
If you want to open any one of them in Youngstown and they are within 500 feet of another business on that list — called “regulated use” businesses in the city zoning code — you need approval from the city’s planning commission and city council.
That required Fred Schulte, who recently opened a secondhand store at 1707 Mahoning Ave. on the West Side, to attend Tuesday’s meeting of the planning commission.
The commission recommended the store receive a waiver from the restriction, with council expected to do the same shortly.
“I’m pleased with the outcome, but the law needs to be changed,” Schulte said. “There’s no way a secondhand store should be lumped in with an adult bookstore.”
Councilwoman Carol Rimedio-Righetti, who represents the West Side on council and attended the meeting, said she agrees with Schulte that the law needs to be changed.
“It’s stupid,” Rimedio-Righetti, D-4th, said of the law. “This shouldn’t be in the same category as a bar or a strip club.”
City council passed the regulated-use law in the early 1980s amid concerns “that a cluster of those particular businesses could create a Skid Row-type of area,” said Bill D’Avignon, the city’s community development agency director.
But almost all secondhand stores are granted waivers from the city, he said.
Schulte’s 7,200-square-foot store has been vacant for about a year, last used as a carpet store. For years, it was a Harley-Davidson dealership.
“I took an unused building, and I think I’m doing the citizens of the lower West Side a service,” he said.
Two nearby businessmen — Carl Woodruff, owner of Carlten Motors, and David Tacsik, co-owner of Huck’s Motors, both on Mahoning Avenue — spoke on behalf of Schulte at the hearing. They said Schulte provides a valuable service to those who live on the West Side.
As for the regulated-use law, Tacsik said, “It’s archaic. To be put in with strip clubs is ridiculous. It’s amazing the city wastes time with” requiring Schulte to go through this process to get a waiver.