YOUNGSTOWN — The former Welsh Congregational Church, the city’s oldest house of worship, was saved from the wrecking ball for at least one more month.

The city’s design review committee declined Tuesday to vote on plans by the Catholic Diocese of Youngstown to demolish the 161-year-old building at 220 Elm St. because committee members wanted more information on what will be put in its place.

The committee also delayed a vote on the diocese’s request to demolish a former print shop at 208 W. Wood St. for the same reason.

Pat Kelly, the diocese’s chief financial officer, and Tracie Kaglic, the architect on the projects, said the plan was to take down the buildings and create greenspace.

When committee members asked for specifics, Kelly mentioned shrubs and some landscaping. The members wanted more details and a long-term plan.

Kelly said one long-term option was a building, but there’s no timeline.

“The plan is to demolish the building for future development,” Kaglic added. “We want to demolish as quickly as possible so in the spring, we can get grass planted.”

Charles Shasho, a committee member and the city’s public works deputy director, said the word greenspace “makes me a little nervous,” and he wants “more of a plan.”

Kaglic said she could provide that plan in time for the committee’s next meeting, scheduled for March 1.

Hunter Morrison, the city’s planning consultant who ran Tuesday’s meeting, said the committee wants to see a landscape and irrigation plan.

“Come back with a more complete plan,” he said. “A couple of pieces of grass separated by asphalt is not the best plan.”

He added that the committee wants to see how demolishing the historic building will benefit the diocese, which has its offices across the street, and nearby Youngstown State University.

Morrison said it shouldn’t be “a neglected piece of land.”

The church was built in 1861. A 1997 fire damaged the building, and it’s been closed ever since, falling into disrepair.

The diocese originally had planned to demolish the building last month. But that was delayed because it doesn’t have design review approval.

The diocese purchased the church in 2015 with plans to take it down, but agreed two years later to give it to Youngstown CityScape if the organization could relocate it.

Over the past few years, the city rejected several of CityScape’s proposed locations for the building, including near the Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor on two different occasions. The location the city had chosen for the church a few months ago is on a different parcel near the museum than the one rejected twice.

Monsignor Robert Siffrin said Tuesday in a prepared statement that the deadline to provide a location was Nov. 19, 2021, and the site chosen came a few weeks after that. Diocese officials then “asked numerous questions and raised concerns that were not easily resolved and concluded that the potential of the project had significantly diminished.”

CityScape received a $150,000 donation from Roberta Hannay, a Wick family descendant, toward the project.

The entire project was estimated to cost about $1 million with the building’s top floor being converted to community space and the bottom floor for office space. CityScape officials had said because the project was on hold for so long, it couldn’t start raising more money for it.

Diocese officials say they never received a viable option for the church, and a decision was made recently to demolish it.

Kelly said Tuesday: “Those options were discussed with CityScape. We explored those options, and there wasn’t a viable option in the timeline we’re in right now.”

He called the building “a danger and a liability” that needs to be demolished quickly for safety reasons.

Kaglic and Kelly also said moving it would just relocate the liability to somewhere else in the city.

Shasho asked if any materials are salvageable at the church. Kelly responded that windows and other historic items already have been removed from the building.

dskolnick@vindy.com