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Youngstown hires firm for slum, blight analysis of 4 areas
YOUNGSTOWN
The city hired a company to do a “slum and blight analysis” of four areas that could be redeveloped for “industrial green” businesses.
The board of control signed a $25,000 deal Thursday with CT Consultants, with an office in Youngstown, to determine if the locations meet the state criteria of blighted parcels and if the areas meet the required threshold of 70 percent to be eligible as an urban-renewal area, said T. Sharon Woodberry, the city’s director of community planning and economic development.
The long-term plan would be to acquire the largely vacant property through either fair-market purchases or eminent domain and make the land available for industrial green businesses, such as distribution warehouses and light manufacturing companies, Woodberry said.
The study should be done by May 31.
The four areas, in order of priority, are:
21 acres bound by Oak Street on the north, the Madison Avenue Expressway on the west, North Fruit Street on the east and Himrod Avenue on the south. Of the 152 parcels, 129 are vacant.
19 acres bound by Himrod Avenue on the north, Madison Avenue Expressway and South Lane Avenue on the west, South Pearl Street on the East and Shehy Street on the south. Of the 179 parcels, 149 are vacant.
60.8 acres in the former Wick Six car-dealership areas – Bissell Avenue on the north, Wick Avenue on the west, Madison Avenue Expressway on the south and Andrews Avenue on the east. Of the 294 parcels, 197 are vacant.
31.7 acres bound by Interstate 680 on the north, Oak Hill Avenue on the west, Falls Avenue on the south and Market Street on the east. Of the 180 parcels, 152 are vacant.
Also Thursday, the board retained Calfee, Halter & Griswold, a Cleveland law firm, to defend the city in a lawsuit filed by five Youngstown water customers over the legality of using water and wastewater funds for economic development.
The firm will be paid $325 an hour up to $50,000, according to the contract.
At the request of the city, the Calfee firm issued an opinion in June 2011 that the policy was legal.
The board also agreed to pay its $50,000 deductible to the city’s insurance company to settle a lawsuit with Samuel Abutair, a Washington, D.C., man who contended police used excessive force and publicly humiliated him when they arrested him for a restaurant robbery he didn’t commit in 2013.
Abutair settled the case last month for $72,000 pending final approval by the board of control.
The settlement includes “no admission of liability,” said city Law Director Martin Hume.