43
Trustees will have to decide a zoning change with opposing recommendations
AUSTINTOWN
History may repeat itself as a zoning change request for a parcel is facing the same opposing recommendations as it did 28 years ago.
Austintown Township Zoning Commission and the Mahoning County Planning Commission voted for opposite recommendations to a request to rezone an agricultural buffer behind Green Leaf Landscape Supply, 1430 S. Canfield-Niles Road.
The zoning commission unanimously voted at a meeting last week to recommend disapproval, and the planning commission the opposite at a meeting on March 22.
The request sought to rezone 312 feet from a current agricultural zone to a professional and retail service business zone.
The agricultural zone acts as a buffer between the business and a residential area, the College Park subdivision.
Bryan Ridder, Green Leaf Landscape Supply’s attorney, said the reasoning behind the zone change was to make the land use consistent with other land uses of nearby parcels.
“We were just looking to extend back a minimal amount of footage,” Ridder said.
Ridder said the small, 167-foot, professional and retail service business zone Green Leaf currently has is too small of a “business footprint to do anything viable,” officewise.
Darren Crivelli, township zoning inspector, said this same situation happened before, in 1988. There was a request involving the same parcel resulting in the same opposing recommendations from the zoning commission and planning commission.
Trustees approved the original case’s request in 1988, rezoning just a 180-foot spot of the parcel for professional services and retail services.
”They [trustees] didn’t want to increase the entire amount of property attached to the spot zone. They also felt that it wasn’t doing anything for Austintown [to rezone the entire area],” Crivelli said.
Crivelli said most areas along that road are zoned for professional services only.
The zoning request, if approved, would allow Green Leaf Landscape Supply professional and retail services – two different zoning classifications.
He said the zoning commission said it would be willing to allow the space to be rezoned to just professional use, but the discussion didn’t make it that far at last week’s meeting.
Ridder said zoning commissioners also suggested a no-build easement to continue the buffer zone between the business and residential area. He said he will be mindful of the zoning commission’s suggestions when bringing his case to the trustees.
“The zoning process is malleable, and moving forward, we will endeavor what comes our way,” Ridder said.
Austintown trustees will have a public hearing on the zoning request at 7:30 p.m. April 18 in the township building, 82 Ohltown Road.
“Now, it is in the hands of the trustees,” Crivelli said.