Interest in living near campus pleases planner

Plans are to bring single family homes, apartments, live-work units and other residential areas into the city.
By JoANNE VIVIANO
VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A recent survey shows that 18 percent of faculty and staff at Youngstown State University would live in Youngstown or consider living in the city limits -- even though they haven't yet seen prospective homes.
The number came in higher than expected, said Hunter Morrison, director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at YSU.
"It's really high," he said. "We would be happy at 10 [percent], with no product to show."
Morrison said the survey is the first of three the center will use to determine possible residency in the Smoky Hollow and Wick Avenue areas now undergoing revitalization.
He offered the statistic during a Tuesday presentation before the External Relations Committee of the YSU Board of Trustees. He updated board members about ongoing projects of the university, community groups and businesses.
Goal is 1,000 people
Dr. David Sweet, university president, said the projects are part of what he hopes will grow into an even bigger group of public-private partnerships to renew YSU's surrounding neighborhoods. An initial goal is to bring 1,000 people into the neighborhoods.
"It's critical to have success and to believe we can have success," Sweet said. "Until we have 1,000 people living in Youngstown, people are going to think this is just another pipe dream."
While 1,000 condominiums are built in the Youngstown region each year, Morrison said, none are built in the city. Plans are to bring single family homes, apartments, live-work units and other residential areas into the city.
Morrison said the university's focus is on the half-mile radius surrounding YSU. Within these walking-distance areas, he said, are the university's off-campus areas, including Smoky Hollow to the east, the Wick Park neighborhood to the north and Youngstown's downtown to the south.
Downtown
While projects are under way for neighborhoods in the Wick Park and Smoky Hollow areas, increasing the "arts and knowledge" character of the downtown area will come next, Morrison said.
"It's the worst downtown in the state of Ohio," he said. "It's a complete disaster. It doesn't have to be that way. ... Think about what happened in Akron and Canton and Cleveland."
Morrison said the university must work with other organizations to provide energy for the downtown and to work with the city on projects, such as the planning of the new convocation center. A start is the moving of the Dana School of Music near Powers Auditorium on Federal Plaza West, he said.
Three plans
As part of ongoing renovations in the Smoky Hollow area, Morrison said the center will present three plans for the neighborhood to residents for further input. The area runs from Walnut Street across Wick Avenue to Andrews Avenue and from the Madison Avenue Expressway to Rayen Avenue.
The schemes each include roughly 400 housing units and up to seven acres of parks and open space. A commercial area could be placed along Walnut Street, and a technology area along the Andrews Avenue corridor, connecting the Wick Park area to downtown, Morrison said.
Planning for Smoky Hollow should be complete in March, Morrison said.
Plans for the Wick Park area are near completion. The neighborhood, north of YSU, runs from Crandall Creek to the Madison Avenue Expressway and from the western side of St. Elizabeth Health Center to Crab Creek.
Morrison said recommendations are to upgrade Wick Park, making it more "user-friendly." The former Wick Avenue auto dealership area could become an industrial development or an executive golf course. Other plans, he said, are to upgrade "slum property," perhaps into fraternity or sorority houses.