The Boardman Township Planning/Zoning Department held its second, of two forums last week designed to provide community input for a comprehensive plan, “Building a Better Boardman,” at the Lariccia Family Center in Boardman Park. About 125 persons attended the forums, including elected officials and high school students.
      “Feedback and input generated at the forums will help to create priorities in a comprehensive plan and future projects,” Krista Beniston, director of planning/zoning said.
      The comprehensive plan, to serve as a guide for decisions about the future of the community, including goals and a vision, will be developed sometime this summer, Beniston said.
      Additional information from the public for a comprehensive plan is also being generated through an on-line survey currently being conducted by the planning/zoning department. About 375 responses to the survey have been returned, Beniston said.
      In conjunction with the public forums and on-line survey, the township’s planning/zoning department is also studying updating the zoning codes “to reflect community vision and priorities,” as well as an ‘Active Transportation Plan’ and a ‘Market Street Corridor Plan.”
      Among the concepts featured at the forums was the creation of ‘green infrastructures’ as a method of enhancing community safety and the quality of life.
      “It means planting trees and restoring wetlands, rather than build a costly, new water treatment plant,” Beniston claimed.
      According to data collected at the forums, concern was expressed about the northern end of Boardman Township, especially from the intersection of Market St. and Shields Rd., north to Midlothian Blvd., at the border of the township with the city of Youngstown. That area of the township, according to data collected from census tracts, shows the highest rates of poverty (14 per cent to 22 per cent residents in the area), as well as most the number of vacant homes, and declining numbers of owner-occupied residences. Beniston said the number of vacant homes in the township, 7 per cent, “is very low.”
      A green infrastructure could include the creation of ‘road diets’ and ‘pedestrian refuge islands’ along Market St. in the northern end of the township.
      Such ‘diets’ could reduce the lanes of travel along Market St. by creating ‘islands’ of green space in the middle of the roadway. The concept has also been suggested along the northern end of Glenwood Ave.
      Currently, Boardman Township has no funding for such a project, that could qualify for grant monies.
      Beniston displayed several charts at the public meetings, including one entitled “Where are We Now?”
      That chart suggested Boardman Township is facing changing retail trends in a community where neighborhoods are divided by large roads and commercial areas, making it “difficult and dangerous to walk or bike.”
      Beniston said a ‘complete transportation network’ could see a Boardman Township as a “community where getting to work, meeting friends over dinner, or shopping, can be accomplished easily by foot, bike, transit or car, along beautiful and well-maintained roads that safety accommodate all users.”
      Trustee Larry Moliterno told those attending the forums the development of a community vision “is very important. We hope we can spark a new generation of ideas.”
      Township Trustees have been holding public meetings for the past two years that are geared towards reducing new construction of apartment complexes in the township.
      For example, during a Trustees’ meeting last week, 331 parcels of property around Ewing Rd. as well as just south of the Greater Boardman Plaza were rezoned by R-2 to R-1.
      “This will eliminate duplexes and apartments in the future,” Brad Calhoun, chairman of the Board of Trustees, said.
      Additionally, the township’s Planning/Zoning Department is developing a landlord registration program that will mandate all owners of apartments submit information on their units. That concept was approved two years ago, but brought opposition from one apartment complex owner, who took his concerns to the Ohio Supreme Court. The Court ruled late last year the township’s proposed landlord registration program was legal.