2010 officials, KSU, will meet to find ways to revitalize area

The public will be able to offer comments at a meeting Saturday.
By DAVID SKOLNICK
CITY HALL REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- The lower Oak Hill area on the South Side will undergo a detailed neighborhood plan, courtesy of Kent State University.
KSU's Urban Design Center chose the South Side neighborhood to be the focus of its Shrinking Cities Institute study.
Lower Oak Hill was among 31 neighborhoods featured in the Youngstown 2010 Citywide Plan, completed in July.
The city is using the 2010 plan as its guide for development. The plan seeks to decrease the city's heavy industrial areas and create more green space. It also offers outlines for improving neighborhoods, attracting business to downtown and making the city cleaner.
Youngstown 2010 officials and KSU Urban Design Center personnel and students will hold a design meeting from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Saturday to brainstorm about ways to revitalize the Oak Hill section, said Terry Schwarz, the center's senior planner.
What's planned
The event will be in the conference room of Oakhill Renaissance Place, the former Forum Health Southside Medical Center, 345 Oak Hill Ave.
KSU will have students and faculty at the location from 2 to 8 p.m. Saturday and from 9 to 11 a.m. Sunday to discuss ideas with and take comments from the public.
On Monday from 7 to 9 p.m., the design team will present the final lower Oak Hill neighborhood designs at Oakhill Renaissance Place to the public. There is no cost for the plan, Schwarz said.
The plan will include long-term recommendations that would probably include adding green space, increased agricultural use, ways to attract people to new homes in the neighborhood and where houses and businesses should be located, she said.
"It's not our intent on Monday to say, 'Here's your answer.'" Schwarz said. "We won't impose our vision on people. We want input about what should be done."
The neighborhood's boundaries are Interstate 680, Market Street, Falls Avenue and Mill Creek MetroParks. About 60 percent of the area is vacant land.
The 2010 plan says the continuing trend for Oak Hill and two other South Side neighborhoods, Warren and Erie, is a further depletion of houses if nothing is done.
KSU's Urban Design Center selected lower Oak Hill from a group of neighborhoods proposed by several cities, Schwarz said.
The center has studied that area since May, Schwarz said.
The 2010 plan offers a general land use for neighborhoods but this process for lower Oak Hill will provide more detailed planning, Schwarz said.
The KSU Urban Design Center will present the proposed changes for lower Oak Hill at an Oct. 14 public forum on population decline and its impact on cities at Cleveland State University. YSU will simulcast the conference, Schwarz said.
skolnick@vindy.com