By Ashley Luthern

aluthern@vindy.com

BOARDMAN

The township zoning inspector will appear before the Mahoning County Planning Commission in January to ask approval for zoning changes to residential areas.

Anna Mamone, zoning inspector, said the request is to change areas that are now zoned R2 to R1, which would restrict the use to only single-family homes.

R2 areas allow for a single- family home up to a six-plex, multifamily dwelling, she said.

If a single-family home is in an R2 zone, the home can be turned into a duplex, she said.

“We want to protect the integrity of the neighborhoods,” Mamone said.

Trustee Chairman Brad Calhoun said the township has considered this change for about a year after hearing concerns from residents. “We wanted to address this,” he said.

Mamone said her department has divided the township into four areas and will present the northeast quadrant to the county planning commission first.

“It’s the biggest quadrant we’ll do. The others are smaller,” she said.

Approximate borders for the area are Market Street to the west, Youngstown-Poland Road to the east, U.S. Route 224 to the south and Midlothian Boulevard to the north.

The quadrant includes Brandon Avenue, where Dougherty Construction plans to build an apartment complex of eight six-plexes in two phases at the end of the street. Many Brandon Avenue residents near the proposed site oppose the planned complex.

Mamone said the project will be unaffected, however, because the permits were applied for before the zone change, just as single-family homes that already have been converted to multifamily homes will remain.

The Brandon Avenue project is on hold until water flow to the area can be increased to meet fire and building codes, according to Vindicator files.