YOUNGSTOWN — Looking for ways to stop additional dollar stores from coming into Youngstown, a city council committee met with administration officials to discuss possible zoning code changes.

It was decided at a two-hour Thursday meeting of council’s zoning committee that there would be a focus on creating a design review district along the Market Street corridor between Midlothian Boulevard and Woodland Avenue.

If the district is created, any business looking to locate or make exterior changes on that section of Market Street would need permission from a city committee.

The council zoning committee is planning two more work sessions — with the next one being May 2 — to iron out the details of the design review district.

It would then address other corridors with Belmont and South avenues, Oak Street and McGuffey Road being discussed Thursday.

Another possibility is requiring dollar stores to be licensed with an annual registration.

The decision to review and revise the city’s redevelopment code, which was last updated in 2013, comes after a March 25 council zoning committee meeting at which the administration requested a one-year moratorium on opening new or expanding dollar stores, used car lots, gas stations and auto mechanics businesses in Youngstown.

The committee decided to first tackle dollar stores with 23 of them — Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar — located in Youngstown.

“There needs to be a limit in the city,” said Nikki Posterli, director of the city’s community planning and economic development department and the mayor’s chief of staff. “They pop up where there’s an empty space. If this is going to happen, we need to have more control over them. We’re not trying to shut them down. We want to control them.”

“It’s an oversaturated and predatory business,” said Councilman Julius Oliver, D-1st Ward.

Hunter Morrison, the city’s planning consultant, said dollar stores in the suburbs offer more food options and are in better condition than those in Youngstown. Also, the dollar stores in Youngstown likely caused drug stores to leave the city, which resulted in residents not having places to get prescription and over-the-counter drugs, he said.

But Councilman Jimmy Hughes, D-2nd Ward, said the city doesn’t have other options and shouldn’t go after dollar stores.

“It appears we’ve convicted them and say they’re bad for Youngstown,” he said. “I don’t see that. I hate to think that we’re the predator and going after them.”

During the discussion, those in attendance said the key issues with the dollar stores are oversaturation, an unfriendly atmosphere, the items for sale are expensive, they stagnate grocery store growth, they’re cluttered, the properties are not well maintained, have bad lighting and have insufficient management.

“The intent isn’t to have them move out,” said Michael Durkin, the city’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent. “We’re saturated with them. They serve a purpose, but we have a right to have standards like the townships.”

Research done by the Economic Action Group on behalf of Youngstown shows that several cities that passed permanent bans on new dollar stores permitted them within a certain distance — from 2,500 feet to two miles — of existing stores while others that placed a moratorium waived the restriction for new ones that dedicated a certain percentage of their shelf space to fresh foods.

The council committee is focusing on dollar stores first before addressing used car lots, gas stations and auto mechanic businesses.