Youngstown commission recommends closing a section of Detroit Avenue to motorists

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The planning commission is recommending city council close a section of Detroit Avenue that cuts through Pemberton Park to regular vehicular traffic.

“It will enhance the park complex because right now, it’s hard to cross the street to get to the other side,” said Robert Burke, the city’s park and recreation director at Tuesday’s commission meeting.

The recommendation would close Detroit Avenue between Shady Run Road to just east of Zedaker Street. That section separates the South Side park’s baseball fields on the north from the soccer fields and a pavilion on the south.

If the street is vacated, only those driving to the park will be able to use the road – from the Shady Run Road side – to get to parking areas at Pemberton, said Mayor John A. McNally, a planning commission member. There are about seven houses on Detroit near Zedaker. A blockade would be erected past those houses to not permit vehicles from driving on Detroit to Shady Run, he said.