Home to Southern Park Mall, Boardman is a major retail hub in the region and is known for being the location of the first Arby's restaurant.

Around the turn of the century, the railroad led to Southern Park, a horse racing facility on Washington Boulevard.

[8] Also around 1950, the Youngstown Sheet and Tube Company, one of the largest steel manufacturers in the country, opened a headquarters complex in Boardman across from the DeBartolo Corporation.

Today, the former headquarters is the center of the Southwoods Health medical campus as well as a branch of Youngstown State University and various restaurants.

Parts of the village of Poland in the east and the city of Youngstown in the northeast occupy areas originally zoned to Boardman Township.

The primary corridor of development is along U.S. Route 224, with commercial space along almost the entirety of the township's length of the road except a portion zoned to Mill Creek Park.

[14] At the intersection of Routes 7 and 224 lies Southern Park Mall, which is the largest single shopping destination in Mahoning County.

[16] Furthermore, new development is located along the South Avenue artery which parallels the southern extension of Interstate 680 between its Midlothian and Western Reserve Road exits.

[14] The location of Boardman at the meeting point of several major local roadways allows it to be a center of commercial activity amongst the southern suburbs of the Youngstown–Warren area.

The township is governed by a three-member board of trustees, who are elected in November of odd-numbered years to a four-year term beginning on the following January 1.

As of 2025, the members of the board of trustees are Brad Calhoun, Tom Costello, and Larry Moliterno, and the township administrator is Jason Loree.