Leaders discuss community-cooperation benefits

By Sean Barron

More cooperation and less competition between municipalities is imperative, several officials said.

YOUNGSTOWN — If community leaders and others wish to attract more jobs and industry, enhance urban and economic development, and make land-use initiatives more practical, an approach between communities that stresses cooperation must be adopted.

In short, cities and suburbs need to recognize that what’s good for one is good for all.

Regionalization and revenue sharing among the 16 counties of Northeast Ohio were key themes that ran throughout a panel discussion Monday at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1105 Elm St., on the city‘s North Side. The two-hour session was the fifth and final Universal Caf ’s Arts and Lecture series at the church.

Making up the panel were Mayor Jay Williams; Mike Lyons, mayor of Richfield Village in Summit County; Dan Mamula, coordinator of the Mahoning River Corridor of Opportunity; Arnold Clebone, regional economic development director with the Ohio Department of Development; and Sarah V. Lown, the city’s development incentive manager with the Office of Economic Development.

Part of the discussion focused on an initiative to come up with a nonpartisan, comprehensive 16-county economic development program based largely on tax base revenue sharing and regional land use.

Lyons referred to a 2007 study that looks at a more cooperative approach in the 16 counties, all of which have seen job and population losses.

Many township and city mayors need to implement such ways of thinking, since a “winner-takes-all” approach is no longer feasible for the region, Lyons noted.

Other benefits of regional thinking include attracting and retaining skilled workers; allowing communities to maintain their unique identities; increasing the number of high-quality jobs; and saving infrastructure dollars, Lyons said.

Youngstown has applied for an $80,000 Local Government Services and Regional Collaboration grant to examine the feasibility of a joint redevelopment program between eight communities in Mahoning and Trumbull counties along the Mahoning River, noted Mamula, who’s also a former mayor of Struthers. The eight are Campbell, Lowellville, Struthers, McDonald, Niles, Warren, Girard and Newton Falls.

This marks the first time such an agreement has been reached between the municipalities, Mamula added.

So far, he continued, the initiative has identified 18 sites along the corridor that need to be evaluated for economic development. Such a powerful plan is also imperative to enhance urban development for making the region more attractive to families and businesses, he noted.

“We cannot sustain sprawl,” Mamula said, adding he also wants to focus on the development of brownfields along the river.

Williams echoed many of the same sentiments, adding that mayors in Pepper Pike in Cuyahoga County, as well as other wealthy Northeast Ohio communities, recognize the importance of seeing connections between their areas and the larger region.

Similarly, cooperation between Youngstown and the rest of the Mahoning Valley must be mutual, Williams added.

A collaborative effort between communities is what many employers look for when deciding where to set up a business, Clebone pointed out.

For her part, Lown called Youngstown “a center for culture,” which is something that needs to be made stronger. Green space along the river corridor should also be taken into account, such as where to have bike trails and parks, for example, she said.