Complex on hold over water issues
BOARDMAN
A proposed apartment complex opposed by neighbors is on hold until water flow to the area can be increased to meet fire and building codes.
Dougherty Construction has filed plans with Boardman’s zoning office to construct eight six-plex apartment buildings in two phases at the end of Brandon Avenue.
A private drive called Brandon Court in the plans would run alongside Interstate 680 and connect to the current dead-end of Brandon Avenue, which is a cross street on Sheridan Road. The first phase is construction of two apartment buildings and one carport, according to zoning records.
The second phase is building six more apartment buildings and three carports.
Mike Bury has lived on Brandon Avenue for 50 years and is worried about the changes the complex will bring to the neighborhood.
“It’s a nice, quiet, peaceful dead-end, and now they want to put in eight buildings, a total of 48 apartments. We’re going to have Grand Central Station here with traffic going up and down,” Bury said.
He said about 200 residents who live on Brandon and the surrounding area have asked to be notified when the project is heard at the board of zoning appeals.
Zoning Inspector Anna Mamone said the project has gone through a site-plan review meeting but will not go before board of zoning appeals until a problem with water flow is resolved.
Fire Chief George Brown said the area has access to a water flow of 500 gallons per minute, but for such a large complex, a minimum 1,500 gallons per minute is required in the fire code.
Rick Clayton is one of the developers on the project after having acquired the land in lieu of contract payment on another project.
“We’re hoping to resolve it. I have an engineer working on it. Ideally, sometime this summer we can begin building,” he said.
If all goes according to plan, Phase 2 would begin once the first two apartment buildings are rented, he said.
Bury said even if engineers solve the water-flow problem, he’s concerned about other potential safety problems including road width.
Brandon Avenue narrows to 14 feet in width at the dead end and the new Brandon Court would be 24 feet wide, according to plans.
“It limits the ability for school buses to get in and out of there, snowplow equipment and even two cars to pass,” Bury said.
Mamone said the 24-foot drive was recommended during site planning.
“It’s a private drive and won’t have township snow-plowing. There’s not a requirement to match the private drive width with that of the existing road,” she said.
John Smrek, who has lived on Brandon Avenue for three years, learned about the apartment complex about five months ago when he noticed trees being cleared.
His main concerns are safety, remarking that the private drive is more out-of-the-way for police patrols, and wondered if the apartments will find renters.
“If you’re looking at the surrounding streets, if [nearby] foreclosed houses and duplexes aren’t selling or being rented, what makes them think this will fill up? That is why we think there will be Section 8,” Smrek said, referring to the federally subsidized Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program.
This year, there are 218 Section 8 vouchers being used in Boardman.
Clayton said most resident complaints referenced Section 8 vouchers.
“That was the only complaint, that it would bring the value of their land down,” he said.
Clayton maintained he is not building low-income housing and would not accept Section 8 vouchers.
Smrek and many of his neighbors say residents historically have opposed any development at the end of Brandon Avenue. Building plans for the area in the 1970s and 1980s failed to materialize.
“The neighborhood is quiet, and we want to keep it that way,” he said.