CITY DESIGN 2010 plan to receive statewide award

The creators of the 2010 plan are also seeking national recognition.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The Ohio chapter of a national planning organization awarded the Youngstown 2010 Citywide Plan with its outstanding community planning award.
The award is given annually by the Ohio chapter of the American Planning Association to a community, organization or agency for excellence in using planning principles.
The city and Youngstown State University will accept the award next Friday at the Ohio Planning Conference in Cleveland.
The city and YSU applied for an APA national planning award for the 2010 plan. A national winner is to be announced in November or December.
The APA is a national nonprofit organization that represents about 37,000 planners, officials and citizens involved with urban and rural planning issues.
The 148-page design, adopted by city council in July, will be used by the city as its guiding plan for development.
What's included
It seeks to decrease the city's heavy industrial areas and create more industrial green space. It also offers outlines for improving neighborhoods, attracting business to the city's downtown and making the city cleaner.
The 2010 planning commission stressed public involvement in the design process. The commission met with 11 neighborhood clusters last year and used opinions and suggestions gathered at the meetings to develop the document.
Before the 2010 plan, the city operated under a comprehensive plan formulated in the early 1950s and reviewed and updated in 1974. The 2010 plan will be updated every 10 years. The 2010 plan can be downloaded from the www.youngstown2010.com Web site.
In the coming weeks, it will be available at five Youngstown library facilities -- the main branch at 305 Wick Ave., the Brownlee Woods branch at 4010 Sheridan Road, the South Side branch at 1771 Market St., the West Side branch at 2815 Mahoning Ave., and the East Side branch at 6 N. Jackson St., as well as at YSU's Maag Library.
The plan can be purchased for $25 at the Youngstown Planning Department on city hall's 6th floor, 26 S. Phelps St., from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.
skolnick@vindy.com