Neighbors, businesses complain of 'junkyard' on Youngstown's north side; city issues notice

A local towing company has been using an empty lot on Youngstown's north side to store junk cars and other vehicles. But after some complaints, the city says the company had no right to do that.

City law director Jeff Limbian told 21 News Friday the towing company it uses, Schultz Towing, had been leasing the city-owned lot from someone else.

It thought the property had been zoned for storing vehicles.
It isn't.

The city issued a citation, and the cars have to be out of there within 30 days.
Third ward councilwoman Sam Turner told us those cars had all been towed by the city.
Now because of this misunderstanding, they're going to have to sit somewhere else.

"These homes are all complaining about what they're seeing," said Turner. "Before, the lot was empty and cars just came little by little by little, and now it's a full lot, and they're wondering 'why is there a junkyard in our neighborhood?'"

"It's making the neighborhood look bad," said Johnny Naples, Sr., owner of the Golden Dawn restaurant, which only re-opened less than a year ago. "You want people to have an attraction to the city of Youngstown and when you've got to go by this blight, they're gonna think twice."

Naples made the same request as Councilwoman Turner, which is for the city to wrap the fence around the lot "so that it's not such a visual nuisance".

A nuisance that the city of Youngstown can't afford to let hinder its progress.