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Consultants tour city, discuss options
By Dottie McGrew
Special to the Beacon Journal
Published on Friday, Aug 08, 2008
NORTH CANTON: Representatives of the Urban Design Center of Northeastern Ohio have toured the city and talked with officials about its economic future.
The consultants have delivered their proposal on how they would go about creating an all-inclusive economic development plan for the city.
North Canton has not had an all-inclusive economic development plan since the late 1980s.
The Urban Design Center would begin by defining and refining the points identified by the Imagine North Canton initiative launched by Walsh University several years ago. Categories would include education, arts and culture; a vital commercial district; recreation and entertainment; and internal and external communications.
''Our task would be to move these items forward, to translate them into a strategy for implementation,'' project coordinator David Reed said. ''It is critical to engage as many people as possible in this process.''
Residents would become part of a series of talks defining the city's assets and liabilities. North Canton has to decide for itself what it wants to be, Reed said.
Reed and Christopher Diehl, director of the Urban Design Center, believe the city's assets include its schools, civic pride, city parks and Walsh University.
The Main Street streetscape,
with its vintage street lamps and brick walls, is an asset, they said, but is ''swallowed'' by a jungle of commercial signs and overhead (utility) lines.
The city's greatest asset is an authentic center of town that is easily reached by walking and reinforced by City Hall, the YMCA, the library and churches.
''Other communities are trying to create a center that looks like this,'' Reed said.
Gateways to the city got a mixed review by the consultants.
They found that Walsh University and Washington Square create a handsome eastern gateway; the southern gateway is OK; a western gateway is nonexistent and, on the north, Applegrove Street and North Main Street are a ''mess.''
The Fairways, the city-owned golf course, could be an asset or a liability.
From an outsider's view, The Fairways is a major asset, Reed said, but it's costing the city money, which makes it a liability.
Parking, long considered an issue by residents, is not a problem, Reed said.
''When the last space is full, then you have a parking problem,'' he said.
Council President Daryl Revoldt said the Urban Design Center proposal is a ''first step'' in the city's exploration process.
''We have a blank canvas on which to paint a new picture,'' he said.
The Urban Design Center was founded in 1983 in Kent. In 1999, the center relocated to Cleveland. Projects include design and development in Cleveland, Akron, Kent, Youngstown and several small Northeast Ohio communities.
NORTH CANTON: Representatives of the Urban Design Center of Northeastern Ohio have toured the city and talked with officials about its economic future.
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