SitemapHere’s a look at recent highlights and developments connected with the Vision 2025 initiative in Johnstown
:
Delegation visits Youngstown to learn about Land Banks
In September, a delegation of Johnstown leadership visited the city of Youngstown, Ohio, to learn about land banking and neighborhood planning.
Land banking is a process enabled by Pennsylvania law which streamlines and expedites the process of returning tax delinquent properties into productive use. Land banks are organized to help remediate urban blight.
V25 leadership is currently exploring the feasibility of implementing a local land bank.
The delegation visited three organizations in Youngstown: The Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., the Mahoning County Land Bank and the Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership, to network and learn from organizations that have successfully implemented land banking and planning models.
Barry Gallagher, chairman of the Johnstown Planning Commission, said, “The single idea which, if not the most important, was certainly the most astoundingly obvious: The realization by a city that it had to get smaller. Perhaps it’s the American dream instilled in all of us that makes us believe that we have to constantly grow to be successful. Youngstown has learned that it actually had to get smaller to survive and prosper.”
Community developer receives business award
For his work with the V25 program, development consultant Ryan Kieta has been named to Pennsylvania Business Central’s 2016 class of Foremost Under Forty.
Kieta was honored with this recognition in the October edition of Pennsylvania Business Central, which has been providing information, analysis and news to a 20-county region for 25 years. It is circulated monthly to an audience of more than 10,000.
Editor Spencer Myers summarized the honor by writing, “Each honoree was selected by our editorial board for their grit and determination to keep growing in their chosen field. ... The selection committee based its final selections on nominees who have made a positive impact on the central Pennsylvania business community by consistently moving their business forward, adapting to major changes in their personal and professional life and giving back to the community through volunteering or mentoring.”
Kieta is an urban planner and landscape architect licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland. He is principal of Real Design Inc., a Johnstown-based urban planning and development consultant firm.
V25 e-newsletter published=
In October, Vision 2025 began publishing a regular monthly e-newsletter. Supported by a grant from the Community Foundation for the Alleghenies, the newsletter profiles capture teams, milestones and achievements associated with the V25 program.
To read the full story from the Tribune Democrat, click here.