Council vacates part of street

Move blocks proposed access for school

Lorain City Council voted to vacate part of Regina Avenue in a move that apparently blocks future access from that road to Horizon Science Academy.

Residents on Regina Avenue, currently a dead-end street, opposed the school’s plan to use the road for a new staff access driveway and on Sept. 7, Council sided with them.

Council voted 8-1 to grant the petition filed by Regina Avenue residents Brenda and Eric Brock and Mindy Shawver.

They asked the city to vacate a strip of that street that exists on paper and as grass, but never was paved.

With the street vacation, the city will abandon ownership of the property and ownership will revert to the adjacent landowners.

In June, Horizon Science Academy sent a notice to neighbors announcing the intention to open the Regina Avenue access to accommodate traffic around the building, which formerly served as Lorain Catholic High School.

Since its start, Horizon has grown from 90 students when it opened in 2009, to enrollment of 850 this year, with about 100 staff.

The goal was to use a new staff entrance and exit on Regina to alleviate congestion on nearby Falbo Avenue and Tower Boulevard.

But the move prompted an uproar from neighbors opposing more traffic on their street.

On Sept. 7, Councilmanat-Large Mitch Fallis cast the lone dissenting vote.

With the issue, the city residents could petition Lorain officials to vacate the street, Fallis said.

But, residents also could go to Lorain County Common Pleas Court for the street vacation, he said.

Ohio law does not allow the city to stop ingress and egress in an adjoining property owner, Fallis said, citing advice from the city Law Department and Ohio case law.

He said he did not want to put the city in a position to be sued based upon current law and have an adverse financial effect on the city.

Councilwoman-at-Large Mary Springowski, who co-owns a house on Regina Avenue, also cited Ohio law about Council’s ability to vacate, rename or narrow streets and alleys if that is not detrimental to the general interest.

“This is not for the general interest to keep it open,” she said. “To open it up, is only for a private interest for, by their own admission, between 10 and 20 teachers.”

Meanwhile, if there are safety issues on Falbo Avenue and Tower Boulevard, Council should look for solutions there instead of compromising safety with more traffic on Regina Avenue, Springowski said.

“You’ve got people pitting against each other, and I am not going to be a coward and hide behind my fear of threats from a business,” she said. “Oh, we’re afraid we’re going to get sued? We get sued all the time, we’re going to get sued again about things because people don’t like what we do.”

Springowski said she is elected to stand with the people, and she encouraged her fellows to do the same.

The issue spurred more than an hour of discussion in an Aug. 23 public hearing.

Some of them came out again Sept. 7 and Council heard from residents Shawver, Tom Springowski, Jerry Donovan, Jack Lewis, Lynette and the Rev. Dave Rogers, and Rita Flores.

Horizon Science Academy Assistant Principal Jayson Bendik also spoke. “Obviously, we are disappointed, but we respect the process and will evaluate all our options moving forward,” Bendik said afterward.

PHOTOS BY RICHARD PAYERCHIN — THE MORNING JOURNAL Lorain City Council held a public hearing Aug. 23about a petition to vacate a strip of Regina Avenue, a move by residents to stop neighboring Horizon Science Academy from opening the street to make a new driveway to the school. The hearing grew contentious, with residents and school educators at times trading verbal barbs over the plans.

RICHARD PAYERCHIN — THE MORNING JOURNAL Horizon Science Academy has a main entrance on Tower Boulevard. School officials hoped to alleviate some congestion by creating a staff entrance off Regina Avenue, which was blocked by Lorain City Council with a vote to vacate the unpaved portion of the street.