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Youngstown area should consider potential of vacant properties, new study recommends
The report, 18 months in the making, includes a detailed action strategy.
YOUNGSTOWN — The city and its surrounding communities need to look at vacant properties as assets and not liabilities.
That is one of the main points of a new study, “Regenerating Youngstown and Mahoning County Through Vacant Property Reclamation,” that offers recommendations about addressing vacant property issues, primarily in Youngstown.
Youngstown’s property vacancy rate is 43.7 percent, according to a recent survey.
The study’s recommendations are also applicable to communities including Austintown, Boardman, Struthers and Campbell, said Margaret Murphy, project manager for the Youngstown-Mahoning County Vacant Property Initiative, which commissioned the study.
Murphy is executive director of Wick Neighbors Inc., an organization working to develop the city’s Smoky Hollow area.
Members of the vacant property initiative include public officials, members of nonprofit organizations, business leaders and citizens.
The group met for 18 months to recommend revisions to existing ways, and introduce new proposals, to prevent and reclaim vacant property.
The report urges the communities and the county to coordinate policies on preventing properties from becoming vacant and revitalize those that are already abandoned, Murphy said.
“It isn’t just a report,” she said. “It’s a detailed action strategy. It builds on the strengths of the city, the other communities and the county. This is a coordinated effort.”
The cost of implementing the study’s recommendations is unknown.
It’s largely depending on how many are implemented and how, said Murphy and county Commissioner John A. McNally IV, the initiative’s co-chairman.
The cost is “the elephant in the room,” McNally said. It will be based, he said, on what is done such as improving code enforcement, creating a city-county land bank and the expenses involved in doing so.
McNally’s top two priorities are:
UThe creation of a Youngstown-Mahoning County land bank. It would take the passage of a bill in the state Legislature to create the land bank. The Legislature approved a Cleveland-Cuyahoga County land bank last year.
UThe development of a regional property information system. The system tracks information about properties such as neighborhood conditions, housing foreclosures and delinquent utility bill payments.
While the study recommends some quick remedies, most of the proposals are long-term, Murphy and McNally said.
“This is only the beginning,” Murphy said. “I’m optimistic this is the start of an important initiative.”
One of the first steps is to create a council of 15 to 20 members from the city, county, nonprofits, civic and business leaders, McNally said.
“The council would push for these recommendations to take place,” he said.
skolnick@vindy.com