YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – Marguerite Douglas has lived in the Lincoln Knolls neighborhood for about 30 years, and she looks forward to new residents moving into houses under construction.

There’s a lot of vacant land on the city’s East Side, she said, and she and her neighbors are happy that the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. is building homes to fill those areas.

“We know that it’s just going to be so productive by filling these empty spots, and I’m also with the Healthy Community Partnership and I’m on the board for the parks and green spaces, so that helps us as well, having these new homes and getting people involved,” said Douglas, who is a former YNDC board member.

The organization led a ceremonial groundbreaking Tuesday morning at 234 Mumford Circle for a 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom ranch. Construction is starting on another house on Liberty Road, north of McKelvey Lake, also on the East Side. Joe Koch Construction of Austintown is the builder of both homes.

Douglas also looks forward to the neighborhood growing and more people using the Lincoln Knolls Community Park, which is a community gathering place. 

“And we welcome the new neighbors that are coming in, buying these new homes – and I just think it’s so significant to have more new modern homes in our area,” she said.

Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director, said that in the past six months, YNDC completed four homes on Maranatha Court and Beachwood Drive, all on the East Side.

“Those have all been sold to homeowners, and then most recently, in working with the county land bank, we just finished the renovation of a vacant home on Stocker [Avenue], which was just recently sold to a homeowner,” he said. “Again, that’s just to the north of McKelvey Lake as well. We’ve been attempting to have some concentration of both renovation and new construction in this Lincoln Knolls area, McKelvey Lake area of the East Side.

It’s something he looks forward to continuing in partnership with the city and the Mahoning County Land Bank.

The Mumford Circle house is being funded in part with American Rescue Plan money from the city. The two lots upon which the house is being built came from the land bank, and YNDC replatted them into one lot.  

The organization is breaking ground on new homes on all sides of town, Beniston added.

The cost of the Mumford Circle home is expected to range from $200,000 to $250,000 and must be owner-occupied. A 100%, 15-year property tax abatement will accompany the home.

The executive director expects much interest in both the Mumford and Liberty homes, and there’s no target buyer in mind. 

“The demographics that we’ve seen thus far, there’s not really one specific niche,” he said. “We’ve seen all types of people show interest in buying a home.”

Councilman Jimmy Hughes, 2nd Ward, likes that the Mumford house is being built on a larger plot.

“This one, I think, is going to be kind of special,” he said. “I know that the residents in the neighborhood want it to be on the same standards as the other house, and they consider this as one of the better neighborhoods on the whole East Side.”

And he agrees that the new homes will sell fast. That shows that people want to come to the community and to the neighborhood.

Douglas, the Lincoln Knolls neighborhood resident, believes more people living in a neighborhood strengthen it.

“Because by improving your neighborhood and having new people come over, you have new ideas and new concepts, because we all have been here for a very long time,” she said. “But new people coming in may offer other suggestions on how we can improve and sustain different things in our neighborhood. So we welcome that.”

Pictured at top: Marguerite Douglas, a Lincoln Knolls neighborhood resident.