YOUNGSTOWN — The city’s board of zoning appeals denied a request from a North Side property owner to overturn a decision that the site is a junkyard.

An attorney for both Marble Street LLC, which owns the property, and Schultz Towing and Recovery, which leases a number of parcels and plans to buy them in July, had contended last month that the property on and along Wick, Illinois and West Woodbine avenues actually is a vehicle storage facility.

The city board voted 7-0 Tuesday to reject that argument after Law Director Jeff Limbian, a board member, said he did legal research and determined it didn’t have merit.

The city’s “rezoning code does not include salvage operations, scrap operations, vehicle impound yards. So my appreciation of the evidence is that the footprint of this company has been expanded” in a “mixed-use community area that is not appropriate,” Limbian said.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, another board member, said before the meeting he spoke with Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent, about the appeal and the removal of the cars.

About 20 to 30 vehicles, about one-third of the cars that initially were there, remain on the property, Brown said.

Greg Schultz, owner of Schultz Towing and Recovery, said those remaining vehicles will be removed in the next 30 days. He declined further comment.

“Mr. Durkin was satisfied with the progress, and we’ll review it and his officers will as well to get it moved, and we’ll continue working on that corner,” Brown said. “We have a couple of other things that we’re thinking about that may help clean up that corner and move in the right direction.”

If the vehicles aren’t removed, the city would take care of them and costs assessed to the property owner, Limbian said.

At the board’s April 18 meeting, Tom Schubert, an attorney for Marble Street and Schultz, said the location was a storage facility for vehicles that were totaled in crashes, abandoned or seized by police as part of a criminal investigation.

Schubert, who didn’t attend Tuesday’s meeting, said last month that there is no definition in the city’s redevelopment code.

Limbian said he has since reviewed the redevelopment code as well as the city charter, city laws on the parking and storage of abandoned and inoperable vehicles, Ohio Revised Code and case law. Limbian said he determined that the March 8 citation issued by Robyn Crosby, a city zoning specialist, against Marble Street LLC that the property was being improperly used as a junkyard in a mixed-use zoning area was correct.

Several residents who live near the site had complained about the property to city officials, including at last month’s board meeting, calling it an eyesore and asking the city to resolve the matter.