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Valley Provides Feedback on Vibrant NEO 'Draft Vision'
WARREN, Ohio -- Consensus among northeastern Ohio residents is forming around three main economic development themes: investing in existing communities, connecting communities, and preserving and protecting the region’s open spaces and environmental qualities, according to a “draft vision” for the region.
“People are ready to take on new challenges,” said Hunter Morrison, executive director of the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Consortium, which conducted two sessions Thursday in the Mahoning Valley to present the proposed Vibrant NEO 2040 draft vision. The first of the two local sessions -- out of the 10 to be conducted throughout the 12-county region this week and next -- was held at the Raymond John Wean Foundation yesterday morning. About 35 individuals attended the session.
“The purpose today is to bring back to folks what we heard, the maps we developed, the analysis we developed based on that, and to ask the question, ‘Did we get it right?’ The purpose is to get feedback and to see if the direction we think the region wants to go in is the direction it does,” Morrison said.
The draft vision, crafted from responses at community meetings held over the summer, is not meant to be a plan but to provide a framework for future planning for the region, he emphasized.
People are ready for change, he said. The directions of that change, as reflected in the draft vision, have to do with investing in existing communities, making them good places to live, work and raise a family; improving connections between communities by providing better transportation choices and options; and protecting the natural environment, revitalizing the rivers and streams polluted in the past as well as connecting communities to the lakefront and making sure people can take advantage of the open space and park networks.
One of the ideas that drew broad support among those in attendance, as reflected with the use of audience response technology, was requiring developers to bear more of the financial burden to provide infrastructure such as roads and sewers in undeveloped areas. Among the respondents, 77% said they support using policy and public dollars to promote reinvestment in established areas versus further outward expansion. In a separate question, 71% of respondents said developers should pay all infrastructure costs when building on previously undeveloped area that requires major new infrastructure, while 16% said developers should pay more than they do now but taxpayers should still contribute.
“The general sense is that not all development is always good when the public’s being asked to subsidize it, that development should pay its fair share,” Morrison said. There are “a lot of different ways” that could happen but there is “increasing skepticism” of the notion that the new and improved “is necessarily all that much better,” he added.
The objective would be to make developers reconsider such plans in favor of putting projects in areas where needed infrastructure already exists, said T. Sharon Woodberry, Youngstown economic development director. The issue of taxpayers having to share the burden when development moves to outlying areas is “something that should be looked at,” she acknowledged.
The notion of having developers pay more for infrastructure in new areas is “something that I probably have to give a little bit more thought to,” admitted Cheryl Saffold, who represents Warren’s 6th Ward on City Council, said. “It’s something that’s going to take a concerted effort not only from the developers but local leaders and politicians as well,” she said.
Rose Ann DeLeon, executive director of the Western Reserve Port Authority, said she is encouraged to see strong support for reinvestment in the region’s legacy cities and development. That is very heartening to see that overall that’s where people want to see future investment," she remarked.
Morrison also noted that the Mahoning Valley has taken a leadership role in one of the recommendations for the region, taking inventory of old industrial sites for future development. Such an inventory should be developed on a regional scale and used by communities to lobby for state and federal resources to develop such sites. “We need to collaborate to compete,” he said.
The next step in the process will be to present the vision document to metropolitan planning organizations and councils of governments in the region. Locally, those roles are filled by the Eastgate Regional Council of Governments.
“It’s the body that has the elected officials that come together to make decisions around long-range transportation and environmental planning,” Morrison said.
His organization will also present a report detailing what steps can be taken by individuals as well as government bodies to execute recommendations “so people can start taking action.” Following meetings with metropolitan planning organizations such as Eastgate, NEOSCC’s board will meet to finalize the vision in December.
Copyright 2013 The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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