Austintown acts to keep new duplexes, apartments out of single-family neighborhoods

AUSTINTOWN

Single-family neighborhoods have applied to rezone their properties to ensure they stay that way.

Those areas have applied to be rezoned from R-2 to R-1, which specifies single- family homes.

Township zoning inspector Darren Crivelli said his goal is to wrap up the neighborhoods in the Wickliffe area by the end of this year. Current duplexes or apartment buildings will remain untouched.

“Our concern is as homes go into foreclosure ... Some investor [could] convert [a home] into a duplex and we don’t know about it,” Crivelli said. “We’re trying to keep this a family neighborhood. Keep it safe for families and Wickliffe is our largest residential subdivision in the township. [It’s] very densely populated.”

The most recent section of Wickliffe to push for the zone change includes land on South Meridian Road, Elmwood Avenue, Impala Drive, Collins Avenue, Daytona Drive, First Street and Forest Hill Drive. The Mahoning County Planning Commission recommended rezoning 80 parcels of land on those streets from R-2 to R-1 April 28 for the Wickliffe area.

The Wickliffe area includes the site of the old Woodside Elementary School, which was demolished. The land was then seeded and graded near the end of 2013. Mal Culp, supervisor of facilities and operations at Austintown schools, said the Woodside property, like that of the other demolished buildings, has sat as a park since the new schools were built.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com