YOUNGSTOWN — City officials challenged the public to endorse a far-reaching land-use plan that will be the foundation to creating a cleaner, greener, better organized Youngstown.

And the public responded, with many saying they liked what they saw and heard.

More than 1,300 people turned out to see the Youngstown 2010 action plan announced Thursday night at Stambaugh Auditorium.

Jay Williams, city Community Development Agency director and a presenter at the public meeting, called on Mayor George McKelvey and Dr. David Sweet, president of Youngstown State University, to publicly endorse the plan they both had worked so hard to implement.

The Rev.Kenneth Simon, pastor of New Bethel Baptist Church, said after the nearly 90-minute presentation that he was impressed with the city’s doing its homework and putting together a challenging, but workable plan.

“This is a vision that we’ve needed in this city for a long time, and without a vision, the people perish”, the Rev. Mr. Simon said.

McKelvey said, “This community-based, comprehensive plan will succeed.”

Sweet also told the audience, “We must have a civic vision and the will to move forward and implement the plan.”

In the beginning

The initial 2010 meeting was at Stambaugh Auditorium in December 2002. The vision was presented at the time and consisted of these components: Youngstown, as a small, mid-sized city, must align itself with the realities of a new regional economy; the city must be made healthier and a better place to live; and it must develop an achievable and practical action-oriented plan to make things happen.

After conducting 11 neighborhood meetings attended by more than 800 people over two years and poring over past plans, the city’s planning department and YSU’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies Department developed the city’s first comprehensive land-use plan since 1951.

The plan essentially calls for a cleaner, greener and better planned and organized Youngstown.

Hunter Morrison, director of the urban and regional studies department at YSU, said the last comprehensive plan envisioned a city of 200,000 plus people, a healthy steel industry, more residential homes on the East Side to accommodate those working in the mills, a retail center based downtown, and no planned green space.

The new plan details changes in the city’s industrial, residential and recreational areas.

Plans call for establishing a “green network,” which would entail more open space, recreational areas and wetlands, Williams said, adding that this is the foundation of the land-use plan.

From gray to green

“We want to change the city from being gray to green, which is a key theme in the 21st century.” He added.

Williams said the goal is to start working on some aspects of the plan now and not wait until 2010 to get started.

The plan would involve creating competitive industrial districts by reclaiming old steel mill property; creating viable neighborhoods to compete for people to live; and building on the strengths of projects such as the Youngstown Convocation Center and the expansion at the Edwards. W. Powers Auditorium to create a vibrant city core.

Toward the end, the city plans to expand its downtown lighting to make the core city pedestrian friendly and remove the perception the downtown is unsafe, Williams said.

Plans also call for tying Mill Creek Park to Spring Commons, building a riverfront park, and having hike and bike trails from other communities north and south of Youngstown run through, not around, the city.

The same water courses – primarily the Mahoning River, Mill Creek and Crab Creek – that defined the city’s industrial base, neighborhoods and sides of town, must be used again “as a framework to connect the city with other communities,” Morrison said.

The land-use plan also alleviates the denseness of neighborhoods. In the 1950s, everyone wanted to live close to their jobs, primarily the steel mills, so they could walk or take trolley cars and buses to work, Morrison said. The mills are gone and so is the need to have people living so close together.

The city’s major thoroughfares – Market Street, Mahoning Avenue, Belmont Avenue and South Avenue, will use industrial and retail zoning to entice future customers.

All efforts will be made to tie YSU and the downtown area together, something that has been talked about for years but was never done.

Morrison said the reopening of Federal Street to two-way traffic could allow Western Reserve Transit Authority buses to make a loop between downtown and the university and drop students’ off for classes along Rayen and Lincoln avenues.

Already taking shape

Some aspects of the YSU strategic master plan already are taking shape with the construction of the Andrews Recreation and Wellness Center on campus, developing the new Smoky Hollow neighborhood, and marketing the Wick-Pollock Inn, Morrison added.

Williams said plans are in place to reorganize the Streetscape Committee as Youngstown Cityscape to clean up the downtown are and carry out an annual cleanup up of the major thoroughfares leading into the city.

Money already has come from the Ohio Department of Transportation to beautify the bridges over the Madison Avenue Expressway.

The city has sought a waiver from U.S Environmental Protection Agency to accelerate citywide demolitions and partnered with the Youngstown Board of Education to raze old school buildings and convert the property to green space, Williams said.

He added the city plans to reorganize its code enforcement departments, look to establish a housing court, create a joint code enforcement district that would involve YSU, and make sure laws are in place to hold accountable absentee landlords and property owners to maintain their land and dwellings.

Finally, the city plans to partner with its neighboring communities of Campbell, Boardman, Liberty, Struthers and Austintown to develop projects. Austintown and Boardman townships have passed resolutions agreeing to the 2010 concept and working with the city.

The Meridian Road Industrial District is collaboration with Austintown 20/20 to work on green space development along the thoroughfare the two entities share. The city and township have developed a task force for that project.

Morrison said the action plan is a work in progress and will take several years to implement.

The veteran urban planner, added, however, that he has seen the cities of Cleveland and Chicago grow and thrive because there was “a vision and a community plan and a will of the people to carry it out.”

The land-use plan is set to go before the city planning commission for its approval by March and to city council for its blessing this summer.

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