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Friday, January 30, 2015
Residents, city officials, and YNDC staff came together last night as part of the first Pleasant Grove Neighborhood Action Team meeting with the intention of getting to work on implementing the neighborhood plan created late last year.
The plan focuses on three key issues identified by residents: housing, infrastructure, and crime. To address housing issues, priority properties—often the most blighted homes in the neighborhood—are discussed one-by-one to develop a detailed strategy for bringing them into compliance, which may include code enforcement, rehabilitation, or demolition. The team discussed addressing infrastructure issues through the city’s street resurfacing program this summer and through grant applications for additional funding. Once the Police Department’s community policing unit is in full operation, the team will work with the officer assigned to the neighborhood to address crime issues.
Team members discussed various other neighborhood projects. The Boulevard Park Block Watch has received grants over the past five years to plant more than 200 trees and shrubs throughout the neighborhood. The group has recently applied for additional funding through the Wean Foundation’s Neighborhood SUCCESS program to support more street tree replanting efforts. The action team is also working to nominate the Boulevard Park neighborhood as a nationally-registered historic district, to aid in the preservation of its architecturally significant housing stock and streetscapes. YSU students have completed a significant amount of initial research, which will be used by team members in preparing the nomination. In addition, the team will begin working with Valley Christian School, located on the southern edge of the neighborhood, to prepare a School Travel Plan, which will allow the city to apply for funding through the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Safe Routes to School program to upgrade pedestrian crossings over the railroad tracks at Southern Boulevard, as well as various other sidewalk and crosswalk improvements.
The Pleasant Grove Action Team will meet quarterly to continue implementation of the neighborhood plan. In addition to Pleasant Grove, action teams are already in operation in Powerstown, Rocky Ridge, and the Garden District, and initial kickoff meetings are scheduled for Brownlee Woods, Crandall Park, and Lincoln Knolls.