Warren unveils its revitalization plan

By Ed Runyan

The city’s housing stock will need to drop by 4,000 homes.

WARREN — The city of Warren isn’t likely to receive a large, new attraction such as a convocation center or sports arena to revitalize itself.

Instead, the city will do its best to accentuate its many current assets and “right size” its neighborhoods and downtown to eliminate blight, officials said.

After nearly 18 months, the Poggemeyer Group of Bowling Green, Ohio, is finished with its work on the city’s comprehensive plan and hopes to engage the public in a discussion about the plan at a meeting Monday.

Charlene Kerr, principal owner of Poggemeyer, Mayor Michael O’Brien and Councilman Andy Barkley addressed the media Thursday to promote the 7 p.m. Monday meeting in the Harding High School Cafetorium.

The plan is available for viewing on the city’s Web site at www.warren.org.

Kerr said plans such as Warren’s are being developed in many Midwestern communities as they cope with the loss of population through deindustrialization.

One of the biggest jobs will be to reduce the city’s housing stock by about 4,000 homes, Kerr said. There are a variety of ways this can be done, such as reducing just a few homes per block in blighted neighborhoods, or half of them, or most of them, depending on what the neighbors want to do, she said.

Federal Neighborhood Stabilization money should help with that task, she noted.

Warren doesn’t need a new attraction to draw people into the city, Kerr said.

“There is so much here, it is phenomenal,” she said, listing recreational, historical and cultural attractions. “Part of [what you have to do] is appreciating what you have,” she said.

The plan will be presented to city council in the coming weeks, but eight or so neighborhood groups and the rest of Warren’s citizens will play an important role in seeing the plan come to fruition, Barkley said.

“This plan is written for the citizens. When you empower them at that level, they take ownership,” he said.

Kerr had meetings with all of the neighborhood groups to seek their input on what they wanted to see happen in their neighborhoods during the formulation of the plan.

The city also will reach out to Howland, Niles, Warren Township and Champion township to try to create a more seemless transition between the city and neighboring communities, O’Brien said.