YOUNGSTOWN Planner to aid city and YSU

Hunter Morrison left Cleveland's planning department after his wife, Jane Campbell, became mayor.
By RON COLE
and ROGER SMITH
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITERS
YOUNGSTOWN -- City and Youngstown State University leaders hope Hunter Morrison can do here what he did in Cleveland.
Morrison, who directed Cleveland's planning department during the city's resurgence, is working in Youngstown two days a week as an adviser to city and university officials working on development plans.
"I think we can set some real standards for how cities and universities work together," Morrison, who will be formally introduced at a news conference Wednesday morning, told YSU trustees recently.
The arrangement re-unites Morrison and Dr. David Sweet, dean of Cleveland State University's urban affairs college for 22 years before taking YSU's presidency in July 2000.
Nationally recognized: Sweet, former head of Ohio's development office, said Morrison is a nationally recognized urban planner who was instrumental in forming Cleveland's "Civic Vision" development project under then Mayor George V. Voinovich.
He was director of Cleveland's planning department from 1980 to 2002, leaving when his wife, Jane Campbell, became Cleveland mayor in January.
Morrison, who has degrees from Yale and Harvard, will be the liaison between Youngstown and the university as both embark on new plans for the campus and the city, said Bill D'Avignon, the city's deputy director of planning.
Morrison's planning expertise also will be tapped, D'Avignon said. Morrison already is helping the city to recognize topics it hadn't thought of, he said.
He will advise YSU on an array of issues, from property acquisition, traffic circulation and parking to new student housing, capital budget planning and development of neighborhoods adjacent to campus.
Morrison said YSU is a strong anchor and "a key actor" in Youngstown's future, even more so than Cleveland State and Case Western Reserve University was in Cleveland's resurgence.
YSU can grow: The campus is "a very walkable, compact place, which means you can grow it," especially in the Wick Park, Smoky Hollow and downtown areas, he said.
In the past, YSU's main focus has been on the campus proper, and the university "almost turned its back on its surroundings," he said. But now, the university must reach out to help improve adjacent areas.
Sweet said he thinks the Smoky Hollow neighborhood just east of campus has the most potential and could be "the comeback neighborhood of Youngstown."
YSU has a contract with Morrison through June 30, but the university plans to retain him for three years, said John Habat, Sweet's special assistant.
Morrison will receive $423 a day. He will work one day a week for YSU and one day a week for the city. The city will reimburse YSU for the days he works there, Habat said.