YOUNGSTOWN — Major plans to convert a sizable chunk of city property from largely unused, undeveloped and economically challenged to vibrant, productive and more sustainable start with ideas.

“All along Crab Creek, we’re identifying hidden opportunities,” Hunter Morrison, a planning consultant for the city of Youngstown, said.

Morrison was among those who outlined what the Crab Creek corridor, a roughly 10,000-acre portion of the East Side, could look like when it is revitalized and becomes a hub for economic growth and opportunities.

He also was among those who addressed dozens of residents, elected officials, community leaders and others who attended the Crab Creek Corridor community meeting Tuesday evening at the East Side branch of the Public Library of Youngstown and Mahoning County.

During the crowded one-hour session, city officials unveiled the results of a strategic planning process and study, funded through an Economic Development Administration planning grant. The planning toward unlocking the corridor’s benefit to the city and many of its neighborhoods also heavily relied on community input and developing partnerships.

The Crab Creek corridor is one of Youngstown’s oldest industrial sections and was once home to large businesses such as General Fireproofing Co., the McGuffey Mall and Republic Rubber Co. Over the years, however, Crab Creek has seen its share of blight and steady economic decline as the area’s population has decreased. Consequently, it has some remediated and contaminated brownfields and vacant parcels.

The plan’s key objectives are to improve road and highway infrastructure, prioritize potential major development sites, unlock the area’s greenway potential as it relates to the tributaries that feed into the Mahoning River, and specify, then implement, strategic and action steps.

A heavy emphasis of the study was placing a high priority on ensuring equity, recovery and resilience, workforce development, technologically based and environmentally sustainable economic development, job creation and retention, and private investment.

During the meeting, Morrison and Jeff Homans, who’s with the Cleveland office of the Architecture, Engineering, Construction, Operations and Management Co., which provides services that include urban planning, outlined key ideas for revitalizing the corridor. Core development areas would be on or near Andrews and Logan avenues, they explained.

The area that includes Crab Creek could have the potential to one day see 35,000 to 45,000 jobs, with 38 million- to 48 million-square feet of new industrial space, Morrison noted.

Short-term ideas included creating green buffers to protect residents and neighborhoods from industrial traffic, as well as reconfiguring certain intersections such as where Logan, Andrews and Wick avenues meet. Also brought up was enhancing traffic flow at Crab Creek’s southern end near downtown, which is a mixed-use entertainment and industrial hub and is home to businesses that include the Youngstown Flea and Penguin City Brewing Co.

Stephanie Gilchrist, the city’s economic-development director, discussed a proposed multimillion-dollar joint safety center on the 42-acre site known as the “Wick 6,” a reference to the major car dealerships that occupied that space. Such a building would be about 115,000 square feet and “a great entranceway to Crab Creek,” she said.

Local partnerships, including with the Mahoning County Land Bank, business stakeholders, the Youngstown City Schools, the Youngstown / Warren Regional Chamber, Eastgate Regional Council of Governments, neighborhood groups and organizations, the Western Reserve Port Authority and the city itself, are crucial to the plan’s success. Also needed are collaborations with state and federal entities, a few presenters stressed.

Nevertheless, whatever happens in the corridor will be a long, input-driven process, and Tuesday’s meeting was merely the beginning stage of bringing the study’s findings to fruition, Samantha Yannucci, a planning consultant, said.

“This is one small piece of the puzzle. This is a component of a bigger picture,” she added.

Echoing Yannucci’s assessment was Mayor Jamael Tito Brown, who said the session was the first of many conversations and collaborations to come regarding the huge project.

Those interested in learning more about the plans, keeping up with the project or filling out a survey can go to www.youngstownohio.gov/crabcreek.

Anyone with further questions can contact Taylor Jones at taylorjones@youngstownohio.gov, or call 330-742-8894.