Steubenville Council signs off on parking pad variance for woman with mobility issues

STEUBENVILLE -- City Council approved a variance Tuesday for a front-yard parking pad on Chestnut at Whitehaven to accommodate the needs of a woman with limited mobility.

The property owner, Dr. Aaron P. Orlosky, said he acquired the property recently and has two people living there - one on each floor - and the other party needs one-level living and, to avoid injury, parking by the door.

Orlosky had appealed to council after the zoning board denied his request by a 3-1 vote. Even though the majority present during the contentious zoning hearing had voted yes, the measure still failed because a three-vote majority is required.

He said after looking at the various options presented during that hearing they'd concluded the best thing would be to do a parking pad by the sidewalk and redoing the handicap ramp so the female tenant can get in and out without risk of falling.

A woman living in the lower level of that property told council the disabled resident had used her own money to adapt three prior rental properties to her needs only to have the landlords like what she'd done so much that they decided to move them out and take it over themselves. Orlasky made it clear he's not interested in pushing them out after the work is done and is, in fact, making the improvements for her.

Neighbor Rich Brondos, though, said he's "lived in that area, I know that area. I'm here to keep the neighborhood nice." Brondos complained that he'd presented several options that wouldn't have required front yard parking and all had been dismissed out of hand.

"I'm totally against it, you're going to set a precedent -- if she can do it, (other people) will want to park in front," he said, pointing out zoning regulations forbid front yard parking.

"We're doing this mainly for her disabilities," Orlosky replied, "Parking in the driveway isn't really an option, a doctor's note (about that) was submitted at the first meeting. And I think it's actually going to make the property nice, it makes a nice improvement and gets a car off the street."

Orlosky said all they're asking "is that when we pour the new sidewalk, we just add 9 more feet for the pad. It's not an additional (curb) cut, we're just asking for additional space so she can park there."

After retiring to another room to consider their options, council returned to the public hearing and approved the variance.

Fire Chief Joe Ribar, meanwhile, during the weekly business meeting told council they need a "shovel-ready project" in order to seek funding to help pay for a new fire station.

"We know there’s not $10 million sitting in a pot of gold for us to build a firehouse so we kind of reached out to some communities around us, to figure out how they did it," Ribar said. "And the two things they said is that we had to No. 1, have a design and No. 2, have property to put it on. They said if you’re not shovel-ready, don’t even reach out for any congressional funding, any grants, any levies because no matter what you try to do, you’re not going to get it."

He said they had two previous designs, a generic plan for a public service building done years ago and another "done about about three years ago, it was a pretty detailed one but also a very expensive one--one that we thought was probably going to be a little too much for us to ever even afford."

After talking with Wheeling firefighters Ribar said they reached out to M&G Architects & Engineers, Wheeling, to design a building that would meet the department's needs and the city's budget limitations.

"We need a design that suits Steubenville Fire Department and suits the city," he said. "It's not (like we're) building it, but the first step in building it is to get a design."

Ribar said M&G hopes to have the design done by Nov. 24.

"They’re going to come up every two weeks, meet with us...they’ve already been here a couple times, just to kind of get an idea of what we were looking for," he said. "But on top of this design, if we were to ever find property, you would need a little over 1-1.25 acres to put (it) on, that’s kind of been a difficult part of this scenario--finding somewhere with an acre of property...between the hilltops and the downtown area."

Council also was told that while West Virginia authorities aren't ready to pick a site for the new Ohio River bridge, Brooke-Hancock-Jefferson Metropolitan Planning Commission had voted to support the South Street option just as endorsed by council, City Manager Mike Johnson and Mayor Ralph Petrella.

Council also adopted a resolution of support for Steubenville as the permanent home of the National High School Football Hall of Fame.

Johnson, meanwhile, said the mall — condemned earlier this year because of a myriad of problems including mold, broken glass, roof and structural issues --- is expected to be up for sale in the near future. He said the owners are due in court Oct. 21 for a hearing on code violations found by inspectors.