Planning commission rejects Royal Oaks bar request

YOUNGSTOWN

The planning commission recommended city council reject a request from an East Side bar/restaurant to vacate a portion of Lansing Street for an outdoor patio.

Tuesday’s rejection came because fire Chief John J. O’Neill Jr. said closing the road would cause a delay in response time to houses and businesses on the streets behind the Royal Oaks Bar & Grill at 924 Oak St.

Those houses and businesses “require Lansing as our quickest and easiest means of access,” O’Neill wrote in a letter to the commission. “Although ‘going around the block’ may appear to be a minor delay,” it “is a delay nonetheless.”

“More troubling is [other fire] trucks arriving for a structure fire that will be coming from the east will have greater delays,” O’Neill wrote.

The final decision rests with council, which rarely overturns the commission’s recommendations.

The commission initially heard the Royal Oaks request for a 50-by-188-foot space for an outdoor patio at a March 21 meeting.

Read more about the request and the meeting in Wednesday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.