BY JOHN A. DARNELL JR.
      associate editor
      Members of a Boardman zoning board met recently to consider a request for a conditional use permit that, if granted, and according to the permit application, would provide a group home (for two ‘senior veterans’) at a township condominium complex.
      The permit application suggests transportation, food preparation, mental health and medication administration would be provided by the “owner/staff.”
      The permit application claims that the staff/owner is trained in mental health and medication administration.
      A large number of current residents of the condominium complex attended the meeting in opposition to the proposal, including one person who informed the zoning board that use of a condominium for a business purpose is prohibited by the rules of the condo association.
      However, condo association mandates are not an item for consideration of approval for the conditional use permit.
      The request for the permit was made by a woman who claims to live in a city near Boardman Township where she hopes to be a mayoral candidate in November. However, she failed to show-up for the hearing on the matter and instead a man who claimed to be the actual property owner addressed members of the zoning board.
      When asked where the he lived, the man mumbled he was from ‘out of state,’ while failing to state exactly where he lives and noted that he couldn’t remember who he bought the condo from, and also claimed the proposed operator of the ‘group home,’ the mayoral candidate, was leasing the condo from him.
      When someone addresses a zoning board in Boardman Township, they are required to enter their name and address on a sign-up sheet that is at a podium. The man did sign the sheet, indicating he resided at the condo complex and in the condo for which the conditional use permit is being sought, while not providing an out-of-state address.
      However, a man by the same name, who claims to be the owner of the condo, is listed on the conditional use permit applicationt as living in Texas.
      As well, the name of the reported owner is also listed as the registered agent of a company that claims to own the condo; and that registered agent supposedly lives in Youngstown, Oh. where a man by the same name as the person who addressed the local zoning board has a record of drug-related offenses, according to local and federal court records---offenses related to drugs like heroin and fentanyl.
      And, the man by the same name who is the registered agent of the company that owns the condo acquired the unit from another Y-town man who has a criminal record that includes trafficking in drugs.
      The proposed conditional use permit for the condo was not granted, in part because questions arose on unpaid property taxes on the condo of at least $8000 and local zoning board moved to seek an opinion on that matter from the county prosecutor’s office.
      The unpaid taxes date back several years, and residents opposed to the proposal claim the current, as well as previous owner of the condo in question failed to pay home-owner association dues.
      Most of the above, according to local zoning regulations, does not apply to the application for the conditional use permit.
      However, the permit application declares the undersigned [apparently the man who either lives in Y-town, the condo unit in Boardman, or in Texas] must certify the information contained in the application is “true and accurate.”
      The man from Texas listed on certain Boardman Township zoning forms also uses an address that is reported to be a postal and copy center in Texas, according to computer searches.
      The man who was at the zoning hearing told a township zoning official the back taxes would be paid.
      The entire matter is scheduled to be presented at another Boardman Township Zoning Board of Appeals hearing scheduled for later this summer.