YOUNGSTOWN 2010 Planners move on to next phase

The 2010 plan is to reflect the priorities expressed by neighborhood residents.
By ROGER G. SMITH
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Jay Williams was in a Washington, D.C., hotel room earlier this summer glued to the public access channel.
The city's Community Development Agency director was watching what looked like a Youngstown 2010 neighborhood meeting, only in the nation's capital.
"It was eerie, almost identical," he said.
Williams was heartened to see two things.
First, the audience in Washington, a city of 572,000 people, was about 75 people. That's the same number that 2010 meetings drew in this city of 82,000 people.
Second, Youngstown residents offered more enlightening comments that those Williams heard in Washington.
"We seemed to be a little ahead of the game," he said.
What's next
Planners now take the perspective gained with the recent finish of 11 Youngstown 2010 neighborhood meetings and move to another major phase.
Planners will spend the next five months writing plans for each neighborhood that, combined, make up the Youngstown 2010 plan for the city.
Planners are to reflect land use and short- and long-term redevelopment priorities as outlined by residents.
Organizers will unveil the draft plan Jan. 27.
To little surprise, removing blight was a dominant and recurring theme of the neighborhood meetings. But planners say hearing what they already knew didn't make the meetings a waste of time.
Residents' repeating what they want legitimizes the priorities that will be in the 2010 plan, Williams said.
"To actually hear it stated by residents reinforced it, poignantly, to me," he said. "I can't imagine doing this process without going through these meetings."
Plus, residents gave specifics such as wanting the city to demolish some properties but restore others and to make landlords register with the city, he said. Planners wouldn't have known those were top priorities if people hadn't spoken up, Williams said.
In touch
The meetings showed residents are in touch with their neighborhoods, said Thomas Finnerty, associate director of the Center for Urban and Regional Studies at Youngstown State University.
People have realistic expectations for change, too, he said. That gives the plan a better chance to succeed, he said.
Finnerty said the meetings showed residents identify with the tenants of the 2010 vision for shaping those expectations: accepting a smaller city; defining the city's role in the new economy; improving the city's image and quality of life and taking action.
"Everything is going to come back to elements of the vision," said Bill D'Avignon, city deputy director of planning.
People will be invited to comment on the draft plan in January. Planners say they will tweak it depending on the feedback.
The finished version will be sent to the city planning commission and council for adoption in the months after, D'Avignon said. Moves such as changing zoning regulations to reflect the plan are to be made after that.
It will be well into next year before any of that happens, however.
Meantime, planners are creating a presentation featuring the main themes that emerged from the neighborhood meetings. The presentation will be made to civic groups throughout the area.
The goal is to give a preview of what's to come and keep 2010 from getting lost in the low public profile that comes with writing the plan.
"We don't want people to think we disappeared," D'Avignon said.
rgsmith@vindy.com