The Repository | CantonRep.

com | Sunday, March 27, 2016G3

REPOSITORY FILE PHOTOS

n The Shorb Avenue NW corridor has been identified as one of the six areas in the city that should receive investment. The area is between downtown and the Hall of Fame.

CANTONS FUTURE
PLAN BEING
DETERMINED NOW
By Alison Matas deteriorate while more residents
Repository staff writer moved to the suburbs.
It suggests, instead, Canton

C
CANTON
anton has2 million
feet of unsupported
retail space, 110
miles of road that
lead to vacant or under-used
structures and 11,000 tax-
delinquent properties.
Its a problem that would
cost $460 million to fix, and
with44,000 fewer people
and5,000 fewer homeownersthan
in 1950 the city doesnt have the
money.
The future of that Canton looks
bleak.
But it doesnt have to be.
Nine months ago, a draft of the
$350,000 proposed comprehen-
sive plan for the city was released
to residents to review. It says for
too long, the city has put too little
money toward too widespread
an area to see any real change, so
n Consultants say investing in development in downtown Canton should be the citys first priority. infrastructure has continued to
makes a major public-private
investment into real estate devel-
opment, with most of the money
going toward the neighbor-
hoods near the citys best assets.
Other funds would be earmarked
for acquisition and demolition
of blighted or tax-delinquent
properties and for neighborhood
revitalization.
The plan is market-based,
meaning it presents solutions
based on existing conditions, and
it calls Canton a region that is not
growing. Within the document,
the plan is described this way: It
works within the realities of the
troubling socio-economic trends
of the city itself, where population
loss has been prolonged, where
incomes are down, and where the
costs of catching up on years of
deferred maintenance are going
to be expensive if the community
decides doing so is a priority.
SEE PLAN, G4