The EfficientGovNow award-winning Rollin’ on the River: Mahoning River Corridor Redevelopment Project is making progress toward developing an interactive web site that markets locations available for economic development in the river corridor.
The communities involved in this project, including Lowellville, Struthers, Campbell, Youngstown, Girard, McDonald, Niles, Warren and Newton Falls, hope to enhance the corridor’s economic competitiveness through the new web site, which will include information on Brownfield sites available for development. The web site will provide comprehensive and interactive site maps/photos and updated information on site characteristics, ownership, zoning, utilities, property taxes, permitting procedures, financial assistance tools, marketing demographics and points of contact. In effect, it will be a one-stop shop for marketing properties in the corridor communities.
On November 4, the City of Youngstown submitted a feasibility report on the initiative to the Ohio Department of Development. The report identifies and profiles sixteen Brownfield project sites involving more than 800 acres for potential economic, recreational and/or environmental enhancement. Also, it identifies eleven infrastructure projects related to those sites, as well as eight environmental/preservation enhancement areas and twelve recreational enhancement projects.
The full feasibility report and various site maps and land use plans can be viewed here.
With the $57,451 EfficientGovNow grant the project has received, hardware and software to design and implement the interactive Rollin’ on the River web site has been ordered and properties and buildings are being identified to be marketed. In addition to those identified in the feasibility report, those behind the Rollin’ on the River: Mahoning River Corridor Redevelopment Project will be working with the Mahoning River Corridor Mayors’ Association to identify and profile other property and building in the corridor communities for inclusion on the site.
For all those who participated in EfficientGovNow, it is exciting to see a winning government collaboration, chosen by the citizens of Northeast Ohio, become a reality. We look forward to more collaborations like this becoming a reality as we near a second round of EfficientGovNow in early 2010.