43
Residents of a Youngstown community object to being displaced from their homes to rezone the area as industrial
City council will consider legislation on proposed change at Sept. 21 meeting
YOUNGSTOWN
Residents of an East Side community say they are angry and upset the city is displacing them from their homes to turn the area into a light-industrial business zone.
About 20 people who live in the 21-acre location or those within 250 feet of the area showed up Wednesday for a public hearing.
Only four spoke, and all of them were against the plan to change the zoning from residential to industrial green.
Businesses would include light manufacturing, distribution centers, warehouse and storage facilities, said Bill D’Avignon, the city’s Community Development Agency director.
The location is between Oak Street, Himrod Avenue, Fruit Street and the Madison Avenue Expressway.
City council will consider legislation on the proposed zone change at its Sept. 21 meeting.
The city and Mahoning County’s land banks own all the property in the area except seven houses, D’Avignon said.
Before the public hearing, D’Avignon told The Vindicator negotiations with the seven remaining homeowners was going well. But after the hearing, he said, “I thought everyone was in agreement. Apparently that’s not the case.”
Natasha Gillam of North Lane Avenue, which is in the 21-acre area, said the city was going to fine her if she didn’t make improvements to her house. She said she made $15,000 to $20,000 worth of repairs during the past two years to her property, including a new roof, windows and downspouts.
The city offered Gillam $9,000 to buy the house she’s lived in for about 11 years. The initial offer was $5,040, she said.
“They made me spend my money, and now they want me out,” Gillam said. “It doesn’t make any sense. The city wants to take my house and tear it down. I want to keep my house. It isn’t fair. I want my money back, and I’m not moving.”
Audrey Tillis, speaking on behalf of her 88-year-old mother-in-law, Bertha Tillis, who lives on North Lane Avenue, doesn’t want to leave, either.
Her mother-in-law’s house is paid off. “She does not want to move,” Audrey Tillis said.
Bertha Tillis said she’s lived in her house since 1961.
The city initially offered her about $6,000 and then upped the offer to $13,000.
“You can’t move into a house with $13,000,” Audrey Tillis said.
The city could take ownership of the houses through court action as long as it pays fair-market value, D’Avignon said. But that’s something city officials want to avoid, he said.
The city is offering to sell vacant houses on Cassius Avenue, Forestview Drive, East High Avenue, and Bennington Avenue on the East Side to those living in the 21-acre location, Gillam and Audrey Tillis said.
The houses being offered by the city have problems, and some are in bad neighborhoods, they said.
Also speaking at the public hearing was William Louis Reeves of Fruit Street, whose house is a few feet from the 21-acre area. He said he is concerned the city will try to take his house next.
“They want to upgrade the neighborhood, and I understand that,” he said. “I just want to be treated fairly with a price for my house.”
John F. Kennedy, co-owner of the Royal Oaks Bar & Grill on Oak Street, across the street from the area under consideration for rezoning, said he strongly favors the change.
“Countless number of houses are coming down because of arson and neglect, and this will help create jobs,” he said. “We ask the city to create jobs, and that’s what they’re doing. As a business owner, I’d love to see it.”