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Site may be restored to natural state
BOARDMAN
An eyesore in the township soon may return to nature.
The former Inglis Greenhouse on Southern Boulevard, next to Home Depot, is one of two Boardman locations that might benefit from a Clean Ohio Conservation Fund grant applied for by Mill Creek MetroParks, said Justin Rogers, planning manager for the park system.
“Those funds are primarily for land acquisition for preservation purposes,” Rogers said.
A grant for $300,000 is being sought for the Inglis property, and that amount would cover 75 percent of the project cost. The remaining 25 percent will be paid for by the Mill Creek MetroParks Foundation, Rogers said.
The money would be used to purchase the land, which is adjacent to 24 acres the park already owns with the Cranberry Run tributary, and restore it to a natural state, he added.
“The restoration component of the project will include earthwork, stream restoration through natural channel design principles, re-establishment of floodplains, creation of wetlands and planting of a multitude of native plants,” Rogers said.
Demolition of the greenhouse, however, would not be funded by the grant if it were received, he said.
Township Zoning Inspector Anna Mamone said her department is working to ensure the owner, Beck & Company in California, pay for the demolition.
“It’s been vacant for at least five years. ... There are kids that go back there that hang out, and they break glass. They were going into the greenhouse and spray-painting on the wall,” Mamone said.
The property has been formally declared a nuisance, and the owner already has been issued a home-rule violation and $250 fine that soon will increase to $500 because no action has been taken yet, she said.
The owner “is not on the auditor’s website because property was transferred in a sheriff’s sale, and the attorney handling it never went to the recorder’s office to file it,” Mamone said.
Mamone declined to speculate on the cost of demolition because a competitive bidding process is underway.
Trustee Chairman Thomas Costello said the township will not be able contribute to the demolition.
He said between $5,000 to $6,000 in back taxes are owed on the Inglis property.
“We’re not sure if those taxes will, in fact, be paid or waived” if the grant is awarded, Costello said.
If the taxes are paid, the amount would be split among entities that normally receive property taxes, such as the township and school district.
The other project in the township is adding land to the Mill Creek Preserve, located near Western Reserve and Tippecanoe roads, Rogers said.
The grant would pay 75 percent of the cost, in this case $225,000, and the park foundation would pay the remaining 25 percent, Rogers said.