Redevelopment in Parkersburg, West Virginia

A thesis presented to

the faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of Ohio University

In partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the degree

Master of Arts

Grant E. McGregor

April 2021

This thesis titled

Redevelopment in Parkersburg, West Virginia

GRANT E. MCGREGOR

has been approved for

the Geography Department

and the College of Arts and Sciences by

Harold Perkins

Associate Professor of Geography

Florenz Plassmann

Dean, College of Arts and Sciences 3

Abstract

MCGREGOR, GRANT E., M.A., April 2021, Geography

Redevelopment in Parkersburg, West Virginia

Director of Thesis: Harold Perkins

Parkersburg, West Virginia is a city of 29,000 on the Ohio River. Parkersburg is a post-industrial city which has seen population and job loss consistently dating back to

1960. This thesis aspires to highlight Parkersburg’s history, its current status, and revitalization efforts. Much of the results and discussion of this thesis is focused on infill development and its potential and implementation as a redevelopment tool. This thesis aims to expand on urban planning literature by focusing on a small-sized Appalachian city, in addition to expanding upon urban planning literature regarding revitalization.

Recent revitalization efforts made by the city are evaluated, highlighted, and discussed throughout this document.

Keywords: Redevelopment, post-industrial, infill development, urban planning,

Appalachia, mid-sized city 4

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Dr. Harold Perkins for providing me with timely feedback and suggestions regarding this thesis. I would also like to acknowledge Dr. Amy Lynch and

Dr. Gaurav Sinha for meeting with me, serving on my committee, and suggesting literature.

Table of Contents

Page

Abstract ...... 3 Acknowledgments...... 4 List of Tables ...... 7 List of Figures ...... 8 Introduction ...... 9 Case Study Background ...... 13 Purpose Statement ...... 17 Research Questions ...... 18 Literature Review...... 18 Large-Scale Economic Restructuring in Appalachia ...... 18 Small-Scale Economic Restructuring in Cities and the Difficulties facing Central Business Districts ...... 20 Infill as a Main Street and Residential Redevelopment Tool ...... 26 Public-Private Partnerships and Infill Revitalization ...... 38 The Importance of Community Input in Urban Redevelopment ...... 40 The Use of Business Incubators and the Arts/Entertainment for Revitalization .. 43 Methodology ...... 44 Results ...... 54 Resident Perception of Parkersburg ...... 55 Annexation and Elastic cities ...... 56 Perception of Shrinkage ...... 58 The Real Property Improvement Tax Rebate Program ...... 60 Community Development Block Grants ...... 61 Technology-based economic development (TBED) ...... 64 Planning Focus Areas ...... 66 Mapping of Opportunities: Commercial and Residential Vacancies in relation to Planning Focus Areas ...... 71 Downtown Struggles ...... 74 Affordable Housing is a Challenge, but Demand for Senior Housing Helps Create Infill...... 76 Arts and Culture ...... 84 6

Amenities: Waterfront and Museums ...... 86 Community Involvement, Historic Preservation, and Arts ...... 92 Discussion ...... 96 Education Partnership Opportunities ...... 96 Using strong sectors as redevelopment assets ...... 97 Manufacturing in Present-Day Parkersburg ...... 99 Critique and Suggestions for Moving Forward ...... 101 Conclusion ...... 106 References ...... 110

List of Tables

Page

Table 1 Description of Interviewees ...... 46

List of Figures

Page Figure 1 Market Street at night in Downtown Parkersburg ...... 10 Figure 2 Parkersburg location map ...... 11 Figure 3 Planning Focus Area/Redevelopment District Map ...... 67 Figure 4 Underutilized land and abandoned warehouses on Jeanette Street...... 69 Figure 5 Floodwall Parking Lot...... 71 Figure 6 Commercial Vacancy Cluster Map...... 72 Figure 7 Residential Vacancy Cluster Map...... 74 Figure 8 Recent Infill Development Map ...... 78 Figure 9 Rayon Senior Apartments ...... 80 Figure 10 Murdoch Heights Apartments ...... 81 Figure 11 Worthington Creek Apartments ...... 82 Figure 12 Rowan Apartments ...... 83 Figure 13 Newberry Apartments ...... 84 Figure 14 Arts Organizations Map ...... 85 Figure 15 Parkersburg Floodwall...... 86 Figure 16 Parkersburg Floodwall 2...... 87 Figure 17 Oil and Gas Museum ...... 88 Figure 18 Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History ...... 89 Figure 19 Parkersburg Museums Map...... 90 Figure 20 Masonic Temple (future Children’s Museum) ...... 91 Figure 21 Smoot Theater ...... 93 Figure 22 Parkersburg Historic Districts Map ...... 95

Introduction

In this urban planning study, I highlight Parkersburg, West Virginia. Parkersburg is a mid-sized city in the Appalachian region of the United States. The Parkersburg-

Vienna MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area is the 368th largest of 384 total MSA’s (2019

US Census Estimate). With this being said, it is the 4th largest city in West Virginia with a population estimate of 29,300 (2019 US Census Estimate). In urban planning research and literature, small and mid-sized cities like Parkersburg are frequently overlooked. The largest cities tend to get the most attention, leaving out an important story about smaller, post-industrial cities, especially those in Appalachia.

West Virginia is the only state which lies entirely in the federally defined region of Appalachia (ARC). The economy of West Virginia has long been one based around natural resource extraction. Coal was the driver of the West Virginia economy throughout the 1800’s and early 1900’s, keeping much of the state’s population living in small, rural, and isolated communities. West Virginia’s economic marginalization is a story of profits from resource extraction leaving the region at the expense of its increasingly impoverished population. Interestingly, however, Parkersburg does not share the same mining history as many of the other communities in the state. As a border town,

Parkersburg is a port community located on the confluence of the Ohio and Little

Kanawha Rivers. It is much flatter and lower in elevation than the majority of the state and does not share the same abundance of natural resources. In Parkersburg, rather, manufacturing was the foundation for a vigorous local and regional economy in the Mid- 10

Ohio Valley of which Parkersburg was and remains the economic hub (2020 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan).

Figure 1

Market Street at night in Downtown Parkersburg

Note. (fineartamerica.com)

Parkersburg blossomed during the Industrial Revolution and became one of the major employment and shipping centers in the Mid-Ohio Valley (2020 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan). Parkersburg has historically been a leading regional industrial center in the Mid-Ohio Valley in the production of chemicals, glass, plastics, polymers, iron, and steel (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). Since the 1960s, however, the city has seen deindustrialization, population decline, and an increase in median age of its population. Parkersburg’s population peaked in 1960 at 44,800; since this point the population has steadily declined. Being a post-industrial city, Parkersburg struggles to maintain the production facilities that once made it a regional economic powerhouse

(2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). 11

Figure 2

Parkersburg location map

Note. Map by author

In today’s global economy it is more profitable for business to export labor intensive jobs overseas (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). Parkersburg’s job loss in manufacturing is at least partially as a result of this. However, all industry is not yet lost. Parkersburg lies within the Polymer Alliance Zone and is home to polymer manufacturing facilities including the major employer, DuPont. While the production of plastics and polymers has contributed greatly to job creation and historic prosperity in the city and region, the industry has created both public health and environmental concerns. 12

These are primarily associated with well-documented C8 contamination in municipal water supplies and in the Ohio River (Lyons, 2007).

The scope of this research project serves to understand what is being done currently and what has been done in recent history to help keep Parkersburg vital.

Through the interview process, it was discovered that a Real Property Improvement Tax

Rebate Program, Community Development Block Grants (CDBG), and a vacant property registration program are some of the many strategies the City of Parkersburg has endeavored to undertake to promote infill and prevent further decline, especially in and around its central business district (CBD). While the planning literature is full of examples of cities trying to maintain a population of young professionals, this project serves to highlight the challenge of Parkersburg’s aging population and what is being done to incorporate the elderly/aging population in the city’s quest for urban vitality. This appears to be a unique opportunity for aging cities in Appalachia.

Due to findings through qualitative research, it was discovered that Parkersburg has reached a built-out stage and recent legislation has made annexation more cumbersome in the State of West Virginia. As a result of this, in addition to unique opportunity within the city, Infill and reuse projects appear increasingly appealing to the city as a good means for new development. Both infill and reuse projects are encouraged especially through the Real Property Improvement Tax Rebate Program and serve to address complaints from residents that the city is chronically slow in regard to redevelopment efforts. 13

Information found in three comprehensive plans over the last thirty years suggest a shift from annexation being the primary means of urban development to infilling and reusing what land and structural assets already exist in the city. Nearly all recent infill projects are residential infill projects. These projects serve to address a need to diversify housing from an overwhelmingly single-family, frequently degraded, residential housing stock to one that better serves the needs of the city’s elderly population. The type of housing created through these infill projects focusing largely on elderly residents is unique in its own sense and strays from the status quo found in the literature of a focus on only attracting young professionals. This research indicates, however, that there is much room and appetite for commercial infill and reuse, too. One recent reuse project was a large commercial reuse project on a plot which was originally annexed. Territory north of

Parkersburg’s boundary was annexed by the city in the early 2000’s to serve as the logistic center for Coldwater Creek. In 2014, Coldwater Creek filed for bankruptcy and left a 1 million sq. ft warehouse behind (wvmetronews.com). This was then purchased by

Hino motors in 2017 as an infill project. This is an indication that there is some potential for Parkersburg to attract industry as part of its infill and revitalization strategy.

Case Study Background

Parkersburg was one of the first areas in Wood County to have a large amount of housing constructed. 60% of houses were built prior to 1960. (2000 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan). These older houses are more prevalent in Parkersburg than in the rest of Wood County, which was developed later on average. Parkersburg’s total housing supply was 16,100 units in 2000. This is well above the projected housing unit needs for 14

2010, 2020, and 2030. Even if housing losses continue, Parkersburg’s current supply will be sufficient through the year 2030 in terms of the actual number of units relative to its declining population. However, this only tells part of the story.

As of 2020, the median home value in Parkersburg was $89,900, compared to

$116,2000 in the Greater Parkersburg Region. Owner occupied houses in Parkersburg make up 59.5%, while renter occupied units make up 40.5% of all occupied homes (2030

Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). Currently, 74% of houses in Parkersburg are single- family detached. This has not changed since 2010, when single-family detached housing was said to make up “almost three quarters of Parkersburg’s housing stock” (2020

Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 68). While older, single-family housing can enrich the unique character of a city, it is significantly more expensive to maintain, because older housing tends to be less energy efficient and necessary repairs, improvements, and modifications can be costly. As a result, it can be difficult to attract and retain homeowners, which can lead to a significant amount of rental and/or vacant properties.

Generally speaking, owner occupancy is desirable because it is an indication that people are investing in the community and plan to live there for an extended period of time. This is a sign of population growth or stability. Unfortunately, the relatively low owner occupancy rate in Parkersburg is in line with the city’s history of population loss and associated challenges with urban decline.

Dilapidated housing, and slum/blighted property have been significant issues in

Parkersburg for several decades. In total, 25% of existing properties in Parkersburg are vacant. This is broken down to vacant single family residential (12% of existing land 15 use), vacant commercial (10% of existing land use), and vacant public/institutional (3% of existing land use) (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). For the purpose of comparison, Pagano and Bowman’s 2000 study of vacancy in US cities found that on average, 15% of a city’s land was deemed vacant. Parkersburg has aggressively acted on this issue since the mid-2010’s.

Improving Parkersburg’s existing properties and addressing its slum and blighted properties continues to be a critical, yet difficult, component of Parkersburg’s revitalization process. Recent market conditions in West Virginia and Appalachia have hindered efforts to entice developers to build new or to rehabilitate housing within the city. “The costs to build a new home makes it difficult to provide “affordable” units for most workers in the area. At $115/sq ft., the going construction rate in early 2020, makes construction costs for a 1500 sq. ft. house $175,000, excluding lot purchase and preparations, utilities, and permits. With these additional costs the price of a new home is boosted to the $250,000 range. (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan Update)”.

Land and construction costs are high and rising, but the median household income in Parkersburg remains stagnant, meaning residents have low amounts of purchasing power. In addition, the age and physical condition of the existing housing stock is not appealing to many of the area’s potential buyers. Yet, there are many indications there is a demand for housing in the city of Parkersburg, particularly for young adults looking for something other than a single-family house, as well as seniors and “empty nesters” looking to downsize (Parkersburg 2030 Comprehensive Plan). 16

Building affordable housing in Parkersburg is important given these circumstances. While demand for housing seems to exist, the median household income in the city is approximately $36,010 (Parkersburg 2030 Comprehensive Plan Draft, pg.

110). Affordable housing presents an important challenge because the population in

Parkersburg largely consists of people older than average median age and people with disabilities. A significant portion of the population has lived in Parkersburg for a long time and is now retired or approaching retirement. People with disabilities account for

20% of the population in Parkersburg compared to 13% of the national population as well

(Parkersburg 2030 Comprehensive Plan, Pg. 93). These groups have special housing and neighborhood needs that cannot be easily met in existing older homes without expensive modifications. It appears that Parkersburg’s large supply of outdated and deteriorating housing is unlikely to meet the needs of its many low-income residents in the decades to come.

On the other hand, a point of emphasis in Parkersburg since the 2000’s has been to add additional upscale housing including townhouses, loft style apartments, and high- rise condominiums (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan pg. 80). The need for higher income housing has been identified as a planning issue dating back to at least 2000, if not prior. The market needs of higher-income family housing was deemed to be crucial for

Parkersburg, in order for the city to compete with newer housing developments which was drawing the population outside the Parkersburg corporate limits at the time.

Wealthier residents echoed this emphasizing there is not enough high-income housing 17 within the city limits. In 2000, 45% of houses were valued at less than $40,000 and only

5% were valued above $100,000 (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan).

Professionals often work in Parkersburg but commute from outside of the city due to lack of housing opportunity. The average travel to work time in Wood County is 20.3 minutes (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019). Of the estimated 32,473 employees in Wood County (without accounting for margin of error)

64.1% of those employees have travel times of 15 minutes or greater to work (2019 ACS

1-Year Estimate). Parkersburg is a city in which automobile transportation from its furthest boundaries (North/South) takes approximately 16 minutes. Parkersburg is the major employment hub of the county. This suggests that residents often live outside the city in which they work, or potentially live across the river in Ohio, as Parkersburg is a border city. Building higher income housing and attracting the working population within the city limits remains a point of emphasis today, indicating an area of potential opportunity if pursued further by the city.

Purpose Statement

My research serves to investigate what strategies have been and are currently being used to revitalize a mid-sized Appalachian city. The Appalachian region of the

United States is frequently overlooked in urban planning research. This is in part due to much of the region being rural and being home to several smaller cities. My research serves to determine what local government officials and redevelopment stakeholders view as the strengths and weaknesses of Parkersburg. It is important to highlight what makes a city unique, what challenges it is facing, where it has opportunity, and where it is 18 headed in the future. In the effort of revitalization, it is important to build on assets while addressing weaknesses. I will be sharing this project with public employees who gave me insight and participated in interviews, serving a practical purpose to make a positive impact on the community. Further reason for conducting research on development in

Parkersburg is to shed light on or introduce unfamiliar readers to Parkersburg.

Research Questions

In order to accomplish my research objectives, I ask the following research questions:

RQ#1: What obstacles to infill development exist in Parkersburg and how can reuse be encouraged?

RQ#2: What assets does the City of Parkersburg have that can be used to leverage future infill-related redevelopment?

Literature Review

Large-Scale Economic Restructuring in Appalachia

While urban areas within the Appalachian region have developed at similar rates to the rest of the United States, smaller cities and rural areas have lagged behind. The

Kennedy and Johnson administrations made reducing poverty in Appalachia a priority through the creation of the Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC). Despite decades of active policy intervention and billions of dollars in federal and state funds allocated to encourage economic development in the region, the heart of Appalachia remains stagnant and distinct from economic trends experienced both nationally and within the more immediate urban areas of the region (Glasmeier, Farrigan 2003). 19

Much of Appalachia has suffered from the “resource curse”. This is the phenomenon of an area rich in natural resources being economically depressed. A primary reason for this has been the long history of land ownership by outside interests in the region. By the beginning of the nineteenth century, the majority of land in many states in Appalachia were almost completely owned by outside interests (Dunaway,

1995). In West Virginia alone, almost all of the state's land was owned by outside interests. In Tennessee, Kentucky, and Virginia over 50% of land was owned by outside interests.

Due to the balance of land ownership and power held by local elites, residents are often hesitant to change in Central Appalachia (Duncan, 1998). Glasmeier and Farrigan state that “it seems obvious that the basic set of social relationships and institutional trust that must be formulated to ensure some possibility of success are not yet developed”

(Glasmeier, Farrigan 2003, pg. 147). The city of Parkersburg has seen unique problems compared to much of the Appalachian region. While the coal mining was historically the leading industry in most of West Virginia, manufacturing was king in Parkersburg. The topography of Parkersburg is much flatter than much of the state (2000 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan) and its location on the confluence of the Ohio and Little Kanawha

Rivers were advantageous to manufacturing. Parkersburg has seen job loss in manufacturing for several decades and has struggled in its own regard.

Economic geographers such as Holtkamp and Weaver suggest an increase in social capital for much of the Appalachian region. Social capital is the idea that networks of people who live, work, and communicate together help society function effectively 20

(Holtkamp, Weaver, 2018). In their study, Holtkamp and Weaver found that in the federally defined “Appalachian Region” (420 Counties in 13 States) (ARC, 2014) social capital, Appalachian identity, high home ownership rates, and population density were negative covariates of economic distress. In other words, they were factors that showed good economic conditions. Of course, counties in states such as Mississippi and New

York do not possess “Appalachian identity” yet are grouped into the federally defined

Appalachian region based on situations of economic distress by county. While

Appalachia has seen its unique variety of hardship, downtowns and central business districts have seen hardships independent of city size and geographic location.

Small-Scale Economic Restructuring in Cities and the Difficulties facing Central

Business Districts

Redevelopment of downtown districts should take the approach of finding a middle ground between industrial neoliberalism and overbearing government-controlled reform (Williams, Pendras 2013). Some of the literature in urban development focuses on

“winning” and “losing” cities based on extensive neoliberal corporate power. The problem with this is the literature is focusing on extremes of cities that have seen tremendous improvement and those whose urban renewal projects have failed at astonishing rates (Williams, Pendras 2013). Cities with less to talk about, so to speak are often ignored in the literature.

It is important for post-industrial cities to identify one or more non-industrial sectors to focus on developing. It is also important that the city aims to attract partners to form public-private partnerships within the chosen field(s) (Williams, Pendras 2013). It 21 has been shown that post-industrial cities benefit from making a gradual shift towards other sectors. Investment in the tertiary sector can create a greater number, and variety of employment opportunities, attract people, companies, and above all capital to the area (Di

Domenico, Di Domenico, 2007). Post-industrial cities often have low levels of educational attainment. For this reason, it is important that these cities work with nearby institutions of higher education to keep young professionals around the city (Williams,

Pendras 2013). By doing this, a city is placed in a more opportunistic position to diversify its economy. (Robertson, 2004) and (Smith, 1991) assert that a strong working coalition between the private and public sectors must prevail for successful downtown revitalization to occur.

Focusing on downtown areas, it has become somewhat of a challenge for US small city downtowns to remain viable dating back to the mid-20th century. Shopping centers and strip malls have taken away from downtown retail (Robertson, 1999) in addition to online shopping more recently. Highway systems and automobiles have made once far away locations more accessible and contributed the creation of suburban culture in the United States. In the near future, it will be important for cities to promote their downtowns in ways which make shopping at retail stores more attractive than shopping online. In addition to this, it would behoove smaller cities to make activities after 5:00

PM a point of emphasis in their downtowns. This would help attract a younger population, as there is evidence that young professionals wish to “work, live, and play” in the same neighborhood. This is desire to “return” to urban life is different from their parent’s generations’ desire to work in the city and live in the suburbs. 22

In their study of suburban revalorization, residential infill, and rehabilitation in

Baltimore County, Maryland, Hanlon and Airgood-Obrycki suggest an interesting reason for the suburban model to be losing popularity. “According to this perspective, there are a couple of reasons why this is the case. The first relates to changing U.S. demographics.

The suburbs were built to accommodate a two-parent family structure, but the U.S. is no longer a nation of households with children” (Hanlon, Airgood-Obrycki, 2018 pg. 898

Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 50(4)).

With the function and appearance of many American downtowns changing, the corporate and financial base of local business leadership has contracted considerably in many cities. Major nonprofits such as hospitals and universities in some cases replaced banks and big-name corporations as the key downtown anchors (Stone, 2013; Strom

2008; Strom, Kerstein, 2017). In many American cities, central business district development in recent decades has been driven by coalitions of ambitious mayors, nonprofit anchor institutions, and what remains of urban corporate leadership, with a focus on what has become the cliché of the “live, work, and play” downtown that serves as a tourist destination, a residential neighborhood, and consumption hub as well as a business center (Strom, Kerstein, 2017).

When population and economic decline take place in a downtown, it is important that the issue is made a priority by the city. If the problem is ignored, it can lead to diminished demand for downtown real estate which leads to decreased building occupancy and conditions in the downtown (Hollander and Hart, 2019). This can lead to a potentially devastating spiral effect of decline, vacancy, abandonment, lower property 23 values, poor conditions, and depressed occupancy (Hollander and Hart, 2019). Another phenomenon seen in distressed US downtowns is the commonality of property owners converting vacant lots into parking locations as an interim strategy (Ben-Joseph, 2012).

One possible reason for choosing this strategy of demolition is because in some cases it is more profitable to raze the building and convert it to a parking lot than to pay insurance or taxes on the large square footage that is not being used (2000 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan). Unfortunately, this spatial inconsistency in downtowns often makes the area increasingly less attractive to new businesses and other entities.

Business improvement districts (BIDs), tax increment financing, and public– private partnerships that have received the most attention as solutions to the problems of the shrinking downtown. These strategies are viable and have been successful in downtown redevelopment. However, depending on the city, less frequently highlighted strategies may be more applicable. Taking the smart decline approach, CBD edge zones could be rezoned (or their zoning can be relaxed) for low intensity uses like parks, open space, or urban agriculture, driving market demand towards the smaller CBD (Hollander and Hart, 2019, Popper and Popper, 2002).

Cities facing population loss must go through phases of “shrinkage perception” as introduced by Farke, 2005. The concept of shrinkage perception can be broken down into four phases. “(1) the ‘phase of ignoring’, where decline is considered temporary and transitional, (2) ‘observation without acceptance’, where the phenomenon is acknowledged but is not accepted, (3) ‘certain acceptance with or without limited public communication’, where public decisionmakers speculate on how to manage decline, and 24

(4) ‘acceptance’, where traditional growth strategies are no longer pursued.” (Farke,

2005) (Warkentin, Hartt, 2017). Small cities characterized by struggling downtowns have taken their own approach to redevelopment geared toward their small size.

Urban Renewal in a De-industrialized Era (Main Street Approach)

Urban renewal has seen patterns of success independent of time. To elaborate, it has been found that “plain, ordinary, low-value old buildings” (Powe, Mabry, Talen,

Mahmoudi 2016) (Jacobs, 1961 p. 187) are critical spaces for downtown districts. The findings of 20th century planner, Jane Jacobs included assertions that dense areas with old and small buildings are tied to greater pedestrian activity, lower energy consumption, and lower infrastructure costs (Jacobs, 1961). Jacobs findings also show that higher rates of innovation, economic stability, and growth stem from dense areas.

The 2016 study conducted by Powe, Mabry, Talen, and Mahmoudi compares the findings of Jane Jacobs to their findings in the cities of Seattle, WA, San Francisco, CA,

Washington, DC, and Tucson, AZ. The methodology was comprised of creating a lattice grid (200m-200m) in these cities where older smaller buildings exist. The findings were similar to that of Jane Jacobs in the 1960’s in the regard that a great diversity of resident ages is shown, in addition to a younger average age. Population density is high and there is said to be a high proportion of “creative jobs” (Powe, Mabry, Talen, Mahmoudi 2016).

The Main Street Approach is common among small and mid-sized cities when it comes to revitalization efforts. This approach was established by the National Trust for

Historic Preservation in 1977 and is the most widely used method of downtown revitalization in the United States for smaller cities (Robertson, 2004). The approach was 25 initially developed to save older commercial buildings in small midwestern downtowns

(Robertson, 2004). Today, the program has been implemented in over 1,000 US cities in

43 states. The populations of the cities usually range from 5,000 to 50,000 residents.

Some states such as Iowa have implemented Main Street Approach elements in cities as small as 1,000 residents (Bradbury, 2014). (Robertson, 1999) found the Main Street

Approach to be the most successful of 16 downtown development strategies evaluated.

The approach is made up of four elements which cities implement to varying extents depending on specific needs.

Promotion was the most frequently used of the four main street elements in

Robertson’s 2004 study. It is focused on communicating with the public as well as with select audiences about the activities, attractions, and improvements in the downtown.

Some strategies of promotion include creating a newsletter, maintaining a good town or downtown website, or more active local events such as festivals and walking tours

(Robertson, 2004).

Design refers to what one visualizes when they hear the term “healthy downtown”. It is the physical appearance of buildings, sidewalks, and public spaces.

Design is very important in determining a community’s sense of place (Robertson, 2004).

According to the main street philosophy a downtown should be pedestrian-friendly and should encourage people to linger.

Organization refers to fundraising, committee structure, membership recruitment, and consensus building and cooperation amongst the many businesses, individuals, institutions, and government offices with a stake in a city’s downtown (Robertson, 2004). 26

Economic restructuring is important in order for a downtown to adapt and change with the times. It is necessary to help strengthen existing businesses, recruit new businesses to downtown, and, when appropriate, alter the retail and service mix (Robertson, 2004).

Urban renewal and redevelopment efforts in the US typically are bound to ideas of both economic and demographic growth (Rhodes and Russo, 2013). In most cases cities attempt to attract business to restore past economic successes with the idea that population increase will follow. Few cities have taken the approach to accept their population and employment loss. Some planners in cities such as Detroit, St. Louis, and

Philadelphia have adopted smart decline tactics such as urban agriculture and forestry

(Popper and Popper 2002). Youngstown, Ohio has implemented a strategy of planning to shrink which goes against well-established orthodoxies (Rhodes and Russo, 2013). Cities with high vacancy and abandonment rates often look toward infill as opposed to development through sprawl. This is due to the development opportunity that exists within the city limits and urban core.

Infill as a Main Street and Residential Redevelopment Tool

Inﬁll development occurs where small numbers of parcels are available for redevelopment on existing city blocks. This type of development does not change the neighborhood structure substantially because new developments are located between existing buildings oriented to current street and lot subdivision patterns (Ryan, Weber

2007). In their research on infill in Chicago, Ryan and Weber compared infill development to two other development styles: Traditional Neighborhood Development 27

(TND), and enclave development. Their findings showed that infill development was more desirable than TND and enclave development in terms of housing value.

While houses with more bedrooms, bathrooms, and location near the central business district (CBD) or in close proximity to Lake Michigan were the most telling factors of high value, the study focused on three different development types. It was found that identical buildings constructed within infill was worth much more than those constructed within enclave and TND development areas. “Speciﬁcally, location in an enclave decreases housing value by between 22% (large sample) and 24% (small sample), and location in a TND development decreases value by between 21% (small sample) and 27% (large sample) compared to the same unit built as inﬁll” (Ryan, Weber,

2007). This is one example of a city where urban design is indicated to play a meaningful role in determining housing values in low-income neighborhoods and serves to confirm to some extent the theory of Jane Jacobs, who argued that urban development that is integrated is more desirable than that which is isolated (Jacobs, 1961) (Ryan, Weber,

2007).

There has been plenty of evidence that more compact cities with higher densities encourage transportation outside of the personal automobile. Higher densities support closer amenities, increase efficiencies of infrastructure and land use, conserve valuable land resources at the fringe, and is likely to reduce the carbon emissions of the urban dwellers (Hall 1988, Jenks et al. 1996, Lehmann 2005, Farr 2007, Toderian 2012). It has also been shown that walkability enriches neighbors’ social relationships, which are strongly associated with social well-being (Pfeiffer, Ehlenz, Andrade, Cloutier, Larson, 28

2020). Evidence for direct links between neighborhood compactness and social well- being is scant, though household surveys have found that residents who lived in more walkable neighborhoods reported higher life satisfaction, accounting for other related environmental and demographic characteristics.

Infill development helps to create an efficient urban environment by compacting growth. Infill often takes the form of building upwards as opposed to expanding outwards. A good point of reference for this lies in Lehmann’s article, Understanding and Quantifying Urban Density Toward more Sustainable City Form. Here, floor area ratio is discussed. The concept is that high-rise buildings can result in more floor space than the dimensions of the parcel allow. The amount of floor space divided by the total area of a parcel, or plot. It can at times be greater if you are dealing with a multi-story building (Lehmann, 2019).

(Gehl, 2011) identified the ideal infill as the development that does not take place on an arbitrary decision of a real estate developer or a private party. Instead, it assures a sensible assembly of dwelling, people, and event, which results in the improved condition of communal activity as well as privacy. Infill is useful in preventing sprawl. In order to accommodate for its use, “some suburban planning departments across the country have introduced flexible zoning to encourage mixed-use development” (Hanlon, Airgood-

Obrycki, 2018, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space 50(4) 895–921 pg.

898) (Knapp, et. al 2015) Talen, 2013).

Making the case for more stringent zoning practices, Paulsen’s findings on the causes of sprawl are consistent with the idea that stronger planning institutions can 29 potentially reduce sprawl or promote more efficient land development patterns (Paulsen,

2014). This study found that areas with stronger planning saw greater land use efficiency due to more development being directed to already developed areas, rather than more dense development in fringe areas. Likewise, areas which have more restrictive land development regulations (Wharton’s Restriction Index) accommodate new housing units with greater land efficiency. Areas where a greater percentage of the land area is unavailable for development show increases in density and accommodate more new development in previously urbanized areas. Scattered site Infill has been shown to demonstrate economic benefits in high poverty areas. This style of infill resulted in higher land values in Chicago than large-scale revitalization projects which were defined as enclave or traditional new urbanist design (Ryan, Weber 2007).

Cities and neighborhoods with high vacancy rates are the ideal target areas for infill development. These vacancies are not only unattractive to residents and visitors alike, developing them can bring economic benefit to the city and make the quality of life better for residents of these blighted areas. Municipalities should provide vacant land classifications and tax policy investment incentives for vacant land reuse. When cities create categorization recommendations for each type of land, the general public can easily understand the obstacles, challenges, or potential benefits of future development for each type of vacant property (Kim et al., 2018).

It is important to consider that infill re-use projects regardless of use depend on enough money being available both to restore the building to productive use and to maintain it over time (Mallach, 2011). That money can come from the market, or from 30 public or philanthropic subsidy (Mallach, 2011). It is certainly true that the character of the surrounding area in which a vacant parcel lies is unique. Thus, each vacancy should be addressed as its own challenge and no two developments will be exactly alike. Certain vacant sites, particularly ones close to highways and railways, could have long-term potential for industrial use that could bring economic investment and create jobs (Kim,

Newman, Jiang, 2020).

A widely regarded positive of infill is that the development allows for preservation of land outside the urban core. This is beneficial in areas where agri-foods make up a significant portion of an area’s economy. Edmonton and Calgary, Alberta are good examples of this. A 2017 study of dynamics of agricultural land at the urban fringe in Alberta, Canada highlights that the Province is the third leading agri-food province in

Canada. The projected growth of both Edmonton and Calgary raised concerns regarding sprawl into the agriculture producing regions which are located on the urban fringe. It was suggested in this study that infill development may need to be advocated by the

Capital Region Board in response to the growing urbanization in the Alberta Capital

Region. This is especially applicable when policymakers wish to contain agricultural land conversions in the peri-urban areas. Policies that advocate infill development are encouraged in order to achieve a more efficient allocation of financial resources (Wang,

Qiu 2017). There are statistics to suggest infill has been successful in terms of both land preservation and lessening capital costs across Canada. Calgary found that by adopting a denser growth strategy that used 25% less land, it could save $11 billion in capital costs

(City of Calgary 2015). 31

The Saint John, New Brunswick Municipal Plan has proposed to revitalize existing communities through compact development and to promote infill development on vacant and underused properties (City of Saint John 2011). By reducing the expansion of low-density sprawling development and opting for more intensive urban development,

Halifax Regional Municipality (Nova Scotia) indicated that it could save hundreds of millions of dollars (Halifax Regional Municipality 2005).

In Ontario, Canada brownfields are being remediated with the goal of developing on these previously developed sites while preventing development on greenfields as a form of preservation (De Sousa, 2017). The cleanup efforts have been voluntary among private landowners and their environmental consultants. Minimal bureaucratic intervention took place within these efforts (De Sousa, 2017). The provincial Ministry of

Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) granted municipalities additional land-use and tax tools to facilitate brownfield redevelopment within designated Community

Improvement Plan (CIP) areas (De Sousa, 2017). In 2005, Ontario’s Ministry of

Municipal Affairs and Housing led provincial efforts to support brownfield redevelopment through policy and technical assistance. The Ministry established the

Office of the Brownfields Coordinator to facilitate its work and to support municipalities.

Passed in 2005, the Places to Grow Act responded to decades of concern from urban stakeholders regarding the costs and negative consequences of urban sprawl and marked the government’s overarching commitment to sustainability and smart growth.

The first growth plan under this legislation was the Growth Plan for the Greater Golden

Horseshoe which directs urban and suburban growth into already built-up areas, and the 32

Greenbelt Plan which protects agricultural greenfields and ecological systems that frame the region. Research has found that the relative proportion of new homes built on brownfields rose from 56% in 1997 to 64% by 2003, and more aggressive efforts to assemble brownfield land and strengthen housing markets in city centers have made brownfields redevelopment increasingly lucrative since, reaching 123,000 units by 2005

(Adams, 2011, p. 953).

The work by Leigh and Hoelzel (2012) however, finds smart growth pursuits to be somewhat problematic in that they encourage the conversion of industrial brownfields to other uses, which weakens the urban economic base, reduces the supply of employment land, and contributes to industrial-sectors urban sprawl. A recent paper by

DeSousa (2015) found that private sector brownfield stakeholders in southern Ontario continue to be motivated largely by real estate fundamentals (profit, market, location) and many felt brownfields redevelopment had become a standard transaction that is viable if the market permits. Developers also noted that public policy was leading to development brownfield sites because acquiring greenfield sites was becoming increasingly complicated.

A 2016 study using the projection software “UPlan” combined with remote sensing analysis predicted infill to be the most sustainable development method in

California. Infill was compared to 4 other development styles using a projection system on all 58 California Counties. Infill resulted in the least natural vegetation change from this simulation, which predicts 2000 to 2050 change (Thorne, Santos, Bjorkman, Soong,

Ikegami, Seo, Hannah, 2016). Infill was also the scenario that least conflicted with 33 climatically stable existing agricultural lands and the most likely plant biodiversity corridors.

An interesting study was conducted by Evans in 2018 regarding “tiny houses” and people’s perception of them in the context of infill in Ashville, NC and Horry County,

SC. The study found that residents expressed visual preference for integration of tiny houses by means of being Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU’s) or as part of a Tiny House

Community, rather than being implemented as urban infill (Evans, 2018). In other words, if the tiny houses were built as part of an existing lot or matched the character of the surrounding area (tiny house community), residents did not seem to have much opinion.

When tiny houses made up their own lots, residents saw this as a negative. It is worthwhile to note that while residents were generally opposed to tiny houses making up their own lots, they were receptive to the idea when concerns such as property values were addressed (Evans, 2018).

Asheville, NC residents were more receptive to tiny houses than were Horry

County, SC residents. There was less concern regarding property values in Asheville than there was in Horry County. The preferences are reflected in current policy. “Asheville is in the process of creating policy that would facilitate tiny and small house inﬁll by making allowances for smaller lot sizes. As the city does not have minimum square footage requirements for homes, such policy would make the ﬁnancing of tiny and small home endeavors feasible. In Horry County, where greater concern over property values was expressed, no such policy is currently being considered.” (Evans, 2018, Land Use

Policy 81 (2019) 209–218 pg. 214) 34

In a Finnish study, a number of locals perceived inﬁll having negative externalities on their neighborhoods, such as loss of open space, green areas, character of the neighborhood and increased traﬃc (McConnell and Wiley, 2010; Arvola and

Pennanen, 2014), as well as potential decrease in house values (Fischel, 2001; Downs,

2005). There is research to suggest infill often increases property values, as Ryan and

Weber found in their study of Chicago, however this seems to be the most common concern regarding the development. The same concern was shared in Evans’ article on

“tiny house” infill in the Carolinas. Infill development also causes increases in impervious area which results in percentage increases in surface runoff volumes that are largest for smaller storm events. The relationship between increased impervious area and stormwater runoff volume was found to be approximately linear across all storm sizes

(Panos, Hogue, Gilliom, McCray, 2018). A critique from a 2019 Russian study was that infill led to a burden on transportation infrastructure and caused a degradation of the urban environment (Popova, Ptuhina, 2019). Infill was also found to be more expensive than developing on the outskirts of a community.

A 2018 article focused on NIMBYism (Not In My Backyard) and residents’ perceptions to hypothetical medium-to-high density infill gives a plethora of concerns and reasons for opposition. The term NIMBY refers to residents opposing development when it impacts the surrounding area of which they live. Whittemore and BenDor surveyed residents from all over the United States to come to their findings. Among the most common concerns residents had were traffic impacts, project size or bulk, and strain on public works. Demographics frequently played a role in who did and did not approve 35 of infill. Those in single-family homes showed significant opposition. Wealthier residents tended to be in favor of the development. It was also important to note that the median age of respondents was 61 years old (Whittemore, BenDor, 2018). Perceptions of infill and concerns on specific effects also differed between region within the United States.

For example, increased traffic was of the least concern in the Midwest and Northeast regions.

Elasticity of cities has been shown to be correlated with urban vacancy. As cities expand outward, they can leave vacant land and abandoned building stock, especially in their city centers (Berger, 2007). Inelastic cities with limited growth and even no growth outward were found by Rusk to show higher rates of infill. It was also found, however that declining inelastic cities typically do not have the population to support investments to infill (Rusk, 1993). Xiao et al. (2006) suggests that elastic cities typically have vibrant economies and tax bases and have less fiscal rationale to encourage infill, therefore vacant parcels can multiply especially within the city center. In a 2016 study of elastic and inelastic US cities, inelastic cities tended to show business, or commercial lot vacancies, whereas elastic cities tended to show residential vacancies (Newman, Gu,

Kim, Bowman, Li, 2016). Overall, inelastic cities showed fewer total vacancies.

The pattern of elastic cities holding increasing amounts of vacant land compared to inelastic cities is somewhat of a character trait. In a 2000 Brookings Institution study drawing from US census data and surveys sent to US cities of populations greater than

100,000, cities in the Sunbelt experienced high levels of growth in population and land area, reported high levels of vacant land (Pagano, Bowman 2000). Between 1980 and 36

1995, Phoenix grew its population by 55 percent and its land area by 30 percent; it reported 43 percent of its land as vacant. Similar cities include Charlotte and San

Antonio. Sixteen expanding cities increased their land area by 25 percent or greater between 1980 and 1995. These cities reported almost two and a half times the amount of vacant land (23 percent versus 9 percent) than cities with less than a two percent change during the same period (Pagano, Bowman 2000).

A 2016 study building off Pagano and Bowman’s makes the claim that disinvestment, suburbanization, and annexation are the primary causes of increases in vacant land supply while growing local economies, population in-migration, and city policies tend to help reduce the amount of vacant land (Newman, Bowman, Lee, Kim

2016). This study found that elastic cities reported an increase in vacant land (2.6%) since

2000 while inelastic cities show a decrease (0.8%). In both surveys, inelastic cites show much higher rates of abandoned structures (Newman, Bowman, Lee, Kim 2016). The most commonly cited reason for increases in vacant land was disinvestment (or lack of reinvestment of capital) at 29%. Growth patterns and urban boundary expansion were also frequently listed as key factors in vacant land increases with suburbanization (16%), annexation (16%) and deindustrialization (13%) routinely cited (Newman, Bowman, Lee

Kim, 2016).

Environmental and infrastructure concerns are also present within the discussion on infill development. For example, residents in the Southeastern United States expressed concern regarding increased strain on stormwater, sewers, or other public works

(Whittemore, BenDor, 2018). This is due to the increased impervious surface area which 37

Infill creates, and the high levels of annual rainfall this region experiences. Smart growth strategies have also been suggested to increase exposure to toxic vehicle emissions

(Tayarani, Poorfakhraei, Nadafianshahamabadi, Rowangould, 2016). This can occur when population density increases in areas with relatively high emissions concentrations or when polluting activity (i.e., vehicle traffic) becomes more concentrated in more densely populated areas, or a combination of both. Although a goal of smart growth is to promote “alternative” forms of transportation such as walking and biking, residents are still often attached to their personal automobiles.

Smart growth has its critiques in the literature as it is at times deemed to be unrealistic and overly wishful thinking. “Smart Growth does not mean the same thing to everyone. In reality, it has almost come to stand for “whatever form of growth I like best” in the opinion of whoever is speaking.” (Downs, 2005 Journal of the American Planning

Association, Autumn 2005, Vol. 71, No. 4 367-378, pg. 368). Most Americans are accustomed to sprawl and its consequences, but they are not at all sure what would happen to them under smart growth. Faced with such uncertainty, they are reluctant to support such a major change, especially if they are among those groups who would lose existing benefits from sprawl (Downs, 2005). Even with these critiques, infill primarily has a positive connotation in the literature. In cities experiencing vacancy problems, infill is certainly a useful development tool. Certainly, no city is the same and each redevelopment effort will come with unique strategies. What works in one city may not be applicable to another. Some concepts such as public-private partnerships are shown to be important independent of the character of a given city. 38

Public-Private Partnerships and Infill Revitalization

In urban planning, it is often regarded that problems are best solved through the co-production and planning of multiple sectors. This includes government organizations, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and community groups (Watson, 2014). Such multi- sector collaborations increase the civic capacities of the collaborating organizations. In the case of vacant or underutilized land, community engagement is an important element in addressing the problem of vacant urban land and assisting in long-term regeneration

(Roberts, 2000). In many cases, vacant land is viewed as a temporary and solely economic problem; the social and economic values of vacant land are often not considered, which can leave the land itself underused and unappreciated (Kim, 2018;

Kim et al., 2018). To address the problems of vacant urban land, the literature suggests that integrative civic capacity can be a catalyst for multi-sector collaboration by producing: (1) integrative thinking, (2) integrative behavior, (3) integrative community leadership resources, and (4) integrative structures and processes (Kim, Newman, Jiang,

2020). Integrative community involvement, and community leadership resources can bring diverse groups and organizations together in semi-permanent ways (typically across sector boundaries) to remedy complex public problems and achieve common good and has shown promise in solving vacant land problems in transitional cities (Crosby and

Bryson, 2010).

In the development efforts of downtown districts and neighborhoods, it is important to keep projects at a manageable scale. Private partners should be identified before announcing and making plans of any large-scale development (Dieterich-Ward, 39

2015). Although it is dated, the planned Center Wheeling Project of the 1950’s was planned to bring massive economic growth to the city of Wheeling, West Virginia through industry (Dieterich-Ward, 2015). The plan was announced prior to developers finding industrial tenants. Through the announcement of a large reform project, residents got their hopes up for the creation of jobs and an urban renaissance project. In reality, developers failed to form partnerships with tenants and ended up adding only a post office and a trucking company (Dieterich-Ward, 2015).

Two decades later, the Urban Renewal Authority of Wheeling (URAW) created plans around 1971 to implement a (proposed) massive shopping center called the Fort

Henry Mall (Dieterich-Ward, 2015). This plan won the required percentage of votes to begin construction and all the pieces were in place to make the plan happen. This plan would serve as the urban renaissance that was thought to come to life previously

(Dieterich-Ward, 2015).

Officials of URAW announced that Arlen Corporation, a real estate investment trust based in New York, NY would fill the role of the project developer (Dieterich-

Ward, 2015). This became an issue, as the investment trust did not have the interests of

Wheeling in mind. This paradox is common in public-private relationships where an investor is located a great distance from the site of the project. In this case, private interest favored national chains over local business. A group of downtown businessmen filed a claim that the proposed Fort Henry Mall “was a patent attempt” to use the threat of eminent domain to transfer property from one private owner to another” (Dieterich-Ward,

2015 Journal of Urban History pg. 31). “Two months later, the same men filed a similar 40 suit to block construction of the civic center on the grounds that building it on the proposed downtown location would cause “irreparable loss and damage to the citizens of

Wheeling” (Dieterich-Ward, 2015 Journal of Urban History pg. 31). In April 1973, the county circuit court upheld URAW’s authority (Dieterich-Ward, 2015). In response to this a group called the “Save Downtown Wheeling Committee” formed and attempted to revoke the authority’s charter (Dieterich-Ward, 2015). Voters sided with the Save

Downtown Wheeling Committee and by the end of 1973 URAW ceased to exist

(Dieterich-Ward, 2015). This was the first case of an urban renewal authority being abolished by a citizen referendum in American history (Dieterich-Ward, 2015). In addition to cooperation between the public and private sectors, community involvement can make a great impact toward the health of a settlement, particularly at its core.

The Importance of Community Input in Urban Redevelopment

It is important for local government to cooperate with existing community organizations. Any organizations or individuals who pay close attention and are connected to their neighborhood should be contacted regarding new developments

(Garceau, Fusco 2018). An interesting case study on this theme comes from Middletown,

Connecticut. Middletown is a city of approximately 46,000 situated on the Connecticut

River. During the early and middle portions of the 20th century Remington Rand was a major employer in the north end of the city (Garceau, Fusco 2018). When this employer left the city, Middletown saw economic downturn which was visible through the blighted downtown area. 41

Today, Middletown has been championed as a “Top 10 New England Downtown” by the Boston Globe (Garceau, Fusco 2018). With this redevelopment comes the risk of displacing some residents. It appears that this has not taken place in Middletown, especially in the North End neighborhood and a major reason for this is the cooperation between the community-led North End Action Team (NEAT) and the City of

Middletown (Garceau, Fusco 2018). The former Remington Rand property has been replaced with a business incubator in 2018 which houses “a motorcycle shop, an upholsterer, a furniture maker, a coffee roaster, the regional headquarters for a renewable energy company, two breweries and a gym.” (Garceau, Fusco pg. 134 Journal of Urban

Regeneration and Renewal Vol. 12, 2, 132–150, 2018). It will be interesting to keep track of the effect that this has in Middletown. Provided the results are positive, this could serve as a model for cities in similar situations.

The city of Asbury Park, New Jersey has seen a unique resident-driven movement based upon “flipping” private residencies (Ammon, 2015). Asbury Park is a post- industrial city, but rather than being a post-industrial producer city, it is a post-industrial consumer city (Ammon, 2015). This means that the primary attraction to the city was the boardwalk and tourism based around its location on the beach, however the city saw a massive decrease in tourism. The efforts of residents flipping houses was enough to hold

Annual Vintage Home Tours (Ammon, 2015) and has made a significant positive impact on the image of the city.

Another aspect of Asbury Park that is interesting to note is the track record of private business having too much control in redevelopment. A number of private 42 contractors based in New York, NY and Connecticut were given power to build a proposed skyscraper on separate occasions, which never actually came to fruition and created a well-known regional eyesore and shined a negative light on the city (Ammon,

2015). The reason that city government should balance the power between public and private interests is that the private interests of corporations located outside of the immediate region have different interests than the people who do live in the immediate region.

Encouraging residents to invest in their homes and neighborhoods and increasing homeownership rates can establish or enhance neighborhood stability. If a city does not have enough money to redevelop its vacant land, the private market could be encouraged to acquire and reuse it (Kim, Newman, Jiang, 2020). In the case of abandoned properties, an effective strategy to control the maintenance of abandoned lots is for cities to acquire the land through foreclosure and then clean or demolish structures and maintain the property until it can be sold.

Tax incentive programs can be useful tools to spur development and private investment in the community. Tax incentive systems, such as high taxation rates on land but a low rate or no tax on infill development on vacant land, tax credits on vacant land forest structures, and a rehabilitation abatement for abandoned buildings, can increase private investment in vacant land (Kim, Newman, Jiang, 2020). Shifting to more

“creative” techniques, business incubators and the arts have been implemented and promoted in cities across the US with varying results.

The Use of Business Incubators and the Arts/Entertainment for Revitalization

Business incubators are increasingly popular tools used to help businesses start up. The general model of a business incubator involves a building with appropriate space housing businesses below market rent (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). Business incubators serve as efficient reuse projects both from an aesthetic perspective, and from an economic perspective. Business incubators are useful tools because even if one business relocates elsewhere inside (or outside of the city) the incubator is not left vacant and can attract new business. The business that relocates can also fill vacancies elsewhere in the city.

Incubators are beneficial to both business owners and the cities because they increase the range of small business opportunities (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive

Plan). Increasing the range of small businesses allows for creative entrepreneurs and individuals to diversify the economy and allows the market to drive the direction of a city. City governments should pay attention to what the most successful businesses turn out to be and seek to build partnerships in related fields (Williams, Pendras 2013).

There has been a recent trend of shrinking, aging, blue collar cities implementing arts districts both successfully and unsuccessfully (Ganning, 2016) (Klein, Tremblay,

Sauvage, Ghaffari, Angulo 2018). It may worth exploring the construction, and up- keeping of existing art and history museums to enhance and develop a tourism economy.

Arts districts have been most successfully implemented when cities include plans for them in their zoning ordinances and comprehensive plans. Given the reality of budget constraints, it is important to reduce uncertainty in planning for the arts makes better use 44 of limited resources (Ganning, 2016). Arts-related planning has been shown to cause displacement and gentrification when not accounted for by planning boards (Ganning,

2016). The phenomenon of the “SoHo” effect can be described as artists moving into a downtown area, boosting that area’s economy, and driving up the cost of living.

(Ganning, 2016) Once the cost of living becomes too expensive, artists leave for a less expensive neighborhood, thus leaving the original neighborhood blighted and in worse shape than it was in prior to the transition to the arts.

Sports stadiums are often championed by policy makers as being redevelopment projects that generate widespread public benefits (van Holm, 2018). van Holm states that the potential effects on vulnerable populations living near the construction must be taken seriously. Minor League Baseball stadiums regardless of level of competition have been shown to have a significant effect on income growth and minority population growth in mid-sized cities. There also seems to be a consistent mutual benefit between local business and the baseball team (van Holm, 2018).

Methodology

The qualitative methodology of this study consisted of semi-structured interviews and document analysis. The third method used was a GIS digitizing component, in addition to using GIS to create maps of locations within Parkersburg which are highlighted throughout the results of this study. These maps add a cartographic and visual element to the study. As a Thesis focused on planning, it is important to make the project visual to provide the reader with a better understanding of focus areas. 45

These three methods were selected to “triangulate” findings. Information received from interviews tended to match that from GIS analysis and document analysis of comprehensive plans. These methods served to ensure quality results and understand in- depth not only what the current situation in Parkersburg is, but what the situation has looked like in the past as well. Semi-structured interviews were the best fit with my research paradigm from a post-positivist perspective. While every community has different approaches to achieving sustainable growth, there are various ways to achieve this common goal.

Qualitative methods are research methods used by contemporary human geographers. They are tools used by human geographers to study place, people, silenced voices, and fragmented landscapes (Winchester, 2010). Qualitative methods are increasingly used to highlight individual experiences and elucidate human environments.

Qualitative methods were used in this study in the form of interviews with the intention of better understanding the history of Parkersburg, West Virginia and discovering what development strategies are being promoted currently, in addition to discovering recently completed projects.

The interview structure which I used was semi-structured. Structured interviews are conducted in a manner which an interviewer asks the respondent a series of pre- established questions with a limited set of response categories (Fontana and Frey, 2000).

The responses are also recorded by the interviewer according to a coding scheme that has already been established (Fontana and Frey, 2000). Semi-structured interviews are similar to structured interviews in that they both have a predetermined series of questions. 46

However, the benefit of a semi-structured interview is that it is open. Meaning, it allows new ideas to be brought up during the interview as a result of what the interviewee says.

While I was not a tremendously experienced interviewer, some important findings came from allowing the respondent to speak for a long period of time and developing non-scripted questions on the spot based on interesting or unexpected information provided by the respondent. A method which I used to develop questions mid-interview was to pay attention to the tone which the respondent used while answering questions. If the respondent seemed enthusiastic about a topic, for example addressing slum and blighted property, I would press further about that topic. This was slightly more challenging due to not being able to interview in person but was still very achievable.

The interview subjects who agreed to participate and provide input for this study are planning professionals and development professionals. Below is a table describing the roles and descriptions of their professional work.

Table 1

Description of Interviewees

City Development Director Works with local and state officials to develop new programs and initiatives to encourage reinvestment in the community. Promotes economic growth and development opportunities Specializes in business retention, attraction, and expansion. City Planner Determines the best way to use a city's land and resources. They may help draft legislation, plan the construction of new public housing or buildings, help protect the environment, and suggest zoning regulations for private property. County Development Professional Attracts prospective businesses to locate in Wood County. Strives to create a strong economic environment which supports business, encourages growth and new investment while attracting sustainable businesses and a quality labor force to the communities of the county. Community Developer Works to use available resources more effectively. Maximizes opportunities for local communities and public service agencies to secure federal assistance (ARC) for economic development, water and sewer system construction and expansion, public facility improvements Within the 8-county region known as the Mid-Ohio Valley. Note. Table describing interview subject’s professional work.

Document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or evaluating both printed and electronic documents. Like other analytical methods in qualitative research, document analysis requires that data be examined and interpreted in order to elicit meaning, gain understanding, and develop empirical knowledge (Corbin and Strauss, 48

2008; Rapley, 2007, Bowen 2009). Documents that may be used for systematic evaluation as part of a study take a variety of forms. They include advertisements; agendas, minutes of meetings; manuals; books and brochures; journals; event programs; maps and charts; newspapers press releases; program proposals, application forms, and summaries; organizational or institutional reports; survey data; and various public records

(Bowen 2009). In this study, the primary documents analyzed outside of the literature review were three chronological comprehensive plans produced by the City of

Parkersburg.

My research focuses on the reality of this common goal and investigating the approach which Parkersburg has taken to better the lives of current residents, while attracting new residents. The latter may seem a daunting task given the City’s historical trends and demographics as well as the historical trends and demographics of the Mid-

Ohio Valley. In addition to investigating Parkersburg’s actions, I provide my own insights periodically throughout the discussion section addressing topics such as lack of willingness to give up manufacturing, collaboration with local higher education institutions, need for senior housing, and promotion of the downtown as an entertainment hub.

Qualitative research is frequently based upon understanding cultural implications for phenomenon under a constructivist paradigm, whereas this project is focused around understanding the practices which make the desired result possible, drawing comparisons from the stories of other cities through planning literature, in addition to taking land use, existing market trends and legislation to make a case for infill development primarily and 49 to tell the story of how Parkersburg is surviving in a time period in which cities of its character have been forgotten.

I highlight the culture of the Appalachian region in my research, but I express historical shortcomings as a reality or a product of the situation, as opposed to focusing on how the situation came about. While it is certainly important to learn from the past, dwelling on it and writing about reasons for failure can be counterproductive, as it does not do much to provide a solution. Focus should be placed on where Parkersburg is currently headed, while contextualizing current trajectories for infill-based revitalization in historical events and current situations in the city. As (LeCompte, Schensul, 1999) express, the post-positivist method of the qualitative research paradigm is based upon neutrality and evidence based upon experience.

This fits my research as I am aiming to discover what methods of redevelopment will be successful based upon previous strategies and successful strategies of similar communities. While a strictly positivist paradigm does not take cultural implications into consideration, a post-positivist paradigm maintains aspects of positivism and combines the idea of one “reality” with societal phenomenon. While structured interviews are aimed at unbiased and neutral results, the semi-structured interview style does allow for situational variation. By this, I mean as opposed to a set of questions with no room for personability, the structure begins with a set of predetermined questions, yet allows for flow dependent upon the responses of the interviewee.

Obtaining IRB clearance was required in order to conduct my interviews. There was little difficulty in obtaining clearance, as my interview subjects were not only adults, 50 but they were also informed and involved local government employees and community members. No interviews were conducted with vulnerable populations. Through interviews, I was able to access several city documents that are not available online.

Since all documents are public, it is not out of line to ask for information such as the

Vacant Property Registry legal text. The purpose of reviewing three different comprehensive plans (2000 update, 2020 update, 2030 update) was to show which trends have remained consistent and which have changed over time. Reviewing the 2030 plan gives foresight to where the city is headed in the future and how it wishes to market itself.

I used a snowball method to contact local government employees and those who work in economic development within Wood County, WV. My first interviewee provided me with contacts of local government employees and closely related private sector workers who were willing to be interviewed. This approach was effective in building and expanding a network of well-informed people. The participants whom I was directed to and who showed noted enthusiasm during interviews when discussing specific topics helped me understand through local knowledge what the pressing issues are and have been in the community through an outsider’s perspective.

Due to COVID-19 and general time constraints, I conducted 5 interviews with local officials. From these interviews I gained access to Comprehensive Plans and GIS data to use in my research as well. Semi-structured interviews leaning toward a structured format were used. Each interview had set questions which were asked in addition to follow-ups and conversation flow leading to new topics and questions. All interviews were digitally recorded for post-interview review, transcription, and memoing. 51

Furthermore, the Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach was used in my research. This approach stems from the field of development, where local knowledge is privileged, and secondary data is used as context (Chambers, 1997) (Wiederhold, 2015).

While I did not directly observe experts, as the unfiltered methodology suggests, I obtained information through semi-structured interviews, as is highlighted by the approach.

Transcribing the interviews was the first form of analysis. Digital transcribing software was not used, as I found it to be more difficult than simply transcribing by hand.

The low volume of interviews made this a realistic method as well. Interviews were transcribed in a verbatim question/paraphrased response format. Ex:

Q1: How does infill development fit the needs of Downtown Parkersburg?

R1: Paraphrased (With examples of verbatim speech and verbatim quotes)

From these interviews and their transcription, memos were created with all information pertaining to common themes being grouped together as codes. This was an effective way to organize and match themes found in the Comprehensive Plans and gain a more complete understanding of Parkersburg’s story and where there is room for development. The subjects’ quotes, opinions, and statements have been kept confidential and subjects remained anonymous. Common themes were organized by codes and documents containing coded information were created to enhance organization and avoid losing themes and ideas. Several memos were written throughout the process of gathering data. Some memos were several pages containing subject matter on the approach to the 52 results/discussion section, while others were one sentence about an interesting point in the literature.

In addition to input from interviewees, data from three comprehensive plans spanning a time period of 30 years was used to come to conclusions as to where the city is strong and what areas could use improvement in addition to highlighting change or lack thereof. Through reading these documents, I created codes and memos to gather reoccurring themes and determine what the city views as being of greatest importance which were compared codes. These codes and memos were used to create a number of interview questions. In addition to memoing importance in the urban planning realm, I have taken into consideration the cultural implications for which these points are significant.

In accordance with West Virginia State Code (Chapter 8A) the City of

Parkersburg is required to update its Comprehensive Master Plan every 10 years. (2020

Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan) The general purpose of a comprehensive plan is to guide a governing body to accomplish a coordinated and compatible development of land and improvements within its territorial jurisdiction, in accordance present and future needs and resources. (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan)

The 2030 Comprehensive Plan draft was released to the public in early October

2020. Upon this release, I read through the document and added information found within it to the results/discussion section of this document. This plan serves to build off of the

2020 update (written in 2010) to make comparisons on what has changed and what has remained similar in terms of the direction that the city wants to head in. 53

To further solidify my findings through qualitative methods and document analysis, I conducted a digitization process of vacant parcels in Parkersburg. The purpose of this digitization was to ensure that targeted focus areas for development and/or redevelopment found in documents and in interviews matched city records. In addition to this, I used a simple XY to point tool to represent the seven infill projects which were a major focus of the results section. I was sent a parcels shapefile, through which I was able to run a query to find vacant parcels within the city. It was found that residential vacancies had clusters in the areas east and northeast of downtown, specifically east of

Avery Street, while commercial vacancies were primarily found around Jeanette Street,

Depot Street, and in South Parkersburg.

Due to the nature of qualitative research, it was anticipated that I was going to receive a low response rate when approaching community leaders and members for interviews. When laying out initial plans for this project, it was expected that I was going to conduct these interviews in person. Unexpectedly, the COVID-19 pandemic struck, and this was no longer a realistic option, although I would not have minded conducting the interviews in person anyway. Despite receiving a relatively low response rate, complying interviewees steered me in the direction of other complying interview subjects.

The timeframe which I had to conduct interviews and research was another significant limitation. I had a year to conduct interviews, find and read comprehensive plans and other public documents, disseminate the information, draw conclusions, and form my own opinions on the best methods for redevelopment in specific areas of 54

Parkersburg. While this was certainly a hindrance, utilizing semester breaks and overloading my spring semester during my first year of the graduate program to conduct research gave me ample time to complete this project in the standard timeframe allotted.

The GIS Portion of this study primarily serves to confirm assertions made by interviewees, in addition to confirming consistencies between comprehensive plan focus areas, the situation on the ground, and GIS data. In addition to the parcel analysis, several maps are included in this document to enhance clarity and better familiarize the reader with locations in the city, in addition to the location of the city itself. A digitization process was conducted of vacant parcels within the Parkersburg corporation limits. This process was completed by first receiving a parcels shapefile from an employee with the

Wood County Assessor’s office. Through this shapefile, a query was run to find vacant parcels within the city. It was found that residential vacancies had clusters in the areas east and northeast of downtown, specifically east of Avery Street, while commercial vacancies were primarily found around Jeanette Street, Depot Street, and in South

Parkersburg.

Results

Parkersburg is an old industrial city, or as described in an interview with a development director “a legacy city”. As a result of this, the city is home to former sites of industrial use resulting in an abundance of vacant lots and abandoned structures which the city can repurpose or reuse. My initial hypothesis was that there is opportunity for infill in Parkersburg based on my first site visit, when I noticed vacant land exists throughout much of the city. Further research revealed that the leveling of structures 55 between 1970 and 2000 led to a large percentage of the CBD becoming used for surface parking. Through interviews, I found that the city is “built-out” meaning its corporation limits are completely developed. This makes land use decision making important when it comes to future developments. Evidence from comprehensive plans states that the city wishes to move away from annexation due to new West Virginia State Legislature and focus more on infilling and reuse from within. Parkersburg does not have many greenfields, so city planners are focused on taking underutilized property and encouraging residents and businesses to make reinvestments in them to increase value.

This would in turn increase revenues to the city and property values. In the remainder of this chapter, I organize my results according to my original research questions.

RQ#1: What obstacles to infill development exist in Parkersburg and how can reuse be encouraged?

Resident Perception of Parkersburg

Parkersburg reaching a built-out stage makes infill a practical tool for new development, desired by residents. Dating back to 2000, the city has stated in official documents that citizens perceive Parkersburg to be slow in redevelopment efforts.

Residents also expressed that residents did not feel the city was doing enough about slum and blighted property in the 2000 Comprehensive Plan update. The primary issue at the time lied within existing residential and commercial properties, as the city had at the time focused more on acquiring property and assembly of larger sites for redevelopment through annexation. Residents expressed significant interest in the redevelopment of vacant structures in the central business district. More recently, Parkersburg has been 56 very active reusing and repurposing existing properties in addition to being aggressive on rehabilitation of slum and blighted properties. The Uptowner Inn once located in the

CBD, for example has since been repurposed as a Marriott Inn which subtracts from the city’s historic character yet serves an enhanced economic purpose.

Annexation and Elastic cities

Annexation for development despite its new challenges remains listed as a goal in order to obtain middle to high income residential property which the city currently lacks as of the 2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan. Annexing land has become an increasingly cumbersome task in West Virginia, which should make infill all the more attractive.

The annexation process is set out in the West Virginia Code and includes three methods: “minor boundary adjustments, whereby the municipality petitions the adjacent county to adjust boundaries at city’s expense; annexation by election, whereby a petition is made to vote on the annexation; and annexation without an election, whereby the majority of voters in the proposed annexation area petitions the municipality to be annexed.” (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 52) In addition to this, residences and business which are located in Wood County outside of Parkersburg City limits (or any incorporated limits) come with fewer taxes and fees than those located within city boundaries.

Parkersburg, with its historic focus on annexation and high number of vacant parcels, is an elastic city. Elastic cities can be characterized as cities which practice

“aggressive expansion strategies in an effort to better control the city-region and seek 57 higher population increases, stronger tax bases, and healthier urban-regional economies than non-elastic cities” (Meligrana, 2007, Newman, Gu, Kim, Bowman, Li, 2016).

Elastic cities sometimes become so focused on growth on the urban fringe that their urban cores become ignored. It should be kept in mind that the internal frontier can play an important role in future sustainable urban growth patterns through infill development.

Over-expansion of cities has been shown to lead to urban core decline (Newman, Gu,

Kim, Bowman, Li, 2016).

This sprawling expansion to the urban periphery often leads to disinvestment and decline in the original urban core, both in residential neighborhoods and commercial corridors (Newman, Gu, Kim, Bowman, Li, 2016). Although promoting a mixed-use downtown has been on Parkersburg’s agenda since the 1980’s (2000 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan), annexation has the most prominent and persistent history here with regard to the city promoting its economic growth. Annexation was used in the early

2000’s, with the commercial development of the Logistic Center for Coldwater Creek, which later became the Hino Motors manufacturing plant as an infill project.

In the 2020 and 2030 Master Plan updates, Parkersburg has established “Future

Growth Areas”. This indicates the degree to which the city seems wedded to annexation at the potential expense of focusing on infill for redevelopment. Annexing property, according to the City of Parkersburg, serves as a valuable resource to the city. By annexing property, the city can improve its access and reach of community services such as fire and police service to residents, as well as plan for additional transportation connections around the city. It remains to be seen, however, to what degree this kind of 58 vision will delay or prevent infill within existing city boundaries. Encouragingly, the most recent version of the Master Plan (2030) seems to indicate that a higher priority has been placed on “Redevelopment and Reinvestment Areas” within the city where it should

“Prioritize existing infrastructure where possible, before building new or repurposing a site for a new land use” (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, p.25). While a mix of annexation and infill is possible to achieve, it seems the continued interest regarding annexation needs to be addressed if Parkersburg is to pursue a more vigorous approach to urban infill as a redevelopment strategy.

The Opportunity Zones and New Market Tax Credit Zones (NMTC) are incentive programs which have potential to be beneficial, as residents’ input through surveys conducted for the 2020 Comprehensive Plan express frustration with the city in regard to redevelopment within the city and its overemphasis on annexation. Thus, residents are interested in taking advantage of these kinds of government programs for building and/or redeveloping the spaces and structures in the city that are disinvested. It should be noted, however, that it is not at all clear if these kinds of financial incentives can counter decline and overcome the city’s focus on annexation.

Perception of Shrinkage

Parkersburg has seen continued population decline in each Census year since its population peaked at 44,797 in 1960 (US Decennial Census). Post-industrial transformations, the decline of the manufacturing industry, and other economic fluctuations have contributed to diminishing populations and economic stagnation in

Parkersburg and cities all over the globe (Hollander, 2011). Some shrinking cities such as 59

Youngstown, OH and Niagara Falls, NY have adopted the approach of smart decline. In the US, dominant approaches to redevelopment are inherently bound to ideas of both economic and demographic growth. Smart decline’s strategy of planning to shrink goes against these well-established orthodoxies. The term “smart decline” was coined by

Popper and Popper (2002) in their article “Small Can Be Beautiful”. Popper and Popper suggest some cities can benefit from a shift away from planning for growth, and a shift toward thinking about what a city with shrinking resources could safely dispose of.

“Perception of shrinkage” is a concept introduced by Farke (2005). It differentiates four phases of perception of population decline: (1) the ‘phase of ignoring’, where decline is considered temporary and transitional, (2) ‘observation without acceptance’, where the phenomenon is acknowledged but is not accepted, (3) ‘certain acceptance with or without limited public communication’, where public decisionmakers speculate on how to manage decline, and (4) ‘acceptance’, where traditional growth strategies are no longer pursued. Parkersburg most closely fits the third phase of this theory. The city certainly acknowledges that it has suffered from population and job loss consistently for several decades.

Despite seeing job loss over time, there have been recent high points regarding employment in the city. The Hino Motors manufacturing plant has seen its workforce grow from 250 employees to approximately 500 (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia

Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019). WVU Medicine’s Camden Clark Medical Center is the second largest employer in Parkersburg (1,985 employees) and is the region’s premier healthcare provider (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 60

2019). WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center recently underwent two expansion projects. They include a new Emergency Room and Cardiovascular Care Center, as well as a new clinic/office building for Parkersburg Cardiology (City of Parkersburg, West

Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019). City council and the planning commission are realistic about managing Parkersburg’s decline while still pursuing traditional growth strategies.

The manufacturing sector, despite seeing tremendous job loss for decades still has a presence in Wood County and in Parkersburg. Manufacturing is the third-largest specialized industry in Wood County, accounting for 6.8% of all employees in the county

(City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019). The Hino manufacturing plant accounts for 500 employees (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia

Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019). Plastics and Polymers is another significant field in

Wood County with 1,750 employees at the Washington Works plant in nearby

Washington, WV (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus,

2019). Plastics and Polymers is still an industry which is promoted by Wood County, despite its environmental impact related to the chemical C8, which has had a profound environmental impact as well as an impact on human health (Lyons, 2007). This is an industry which many would like to see the region phase out.

The Real Property Improvement Tax Rebate Program

The Real Property Improvement Tax Rebate Program was brought my attention as one of the most significant development points through initial discussion and interviews with a city development director. It is the first tax incentive program aimed at 61 targeting infill development to ever be implemented in the state of West Virginia. The program was implemented in December 2019 by Parkersburg City Council. In West

Virginia, city property taxes are collected by the county government to which the city is located within. The city’s portion of the taxes are then remitted back, which is about 16-

17%. What the City of Parkersburg decided to do was rebate their portion of taxes back to a property owner over the course of 15 years as a way of saying “thank you” for making an investment in the city.

As this program was implemented in December 2019, interview respondents informed me that the coronavirus pandemic put a halt on new developers who may be interested in utilizing this program. However, the future of this incentive program looks promising. Wood County Economic Development is said to receive a number of calls regarding interest in the program. Tax incentive programs are useful tools to spur development and private investment in the community. As Kim, Newman, Jiang (2020) stated, tax incentive programs on infill development can greatly increase private investment on vacant land and abandoned structures.

Community Development Block Grants

Parkersburg is an entitlement community with the US Department of Housing and

Urban Development. This means the city receives Community Development Block

Grants (CDBG) and Home Partnership funds from the Federal Government. CDBG funds facilitate home maintenance and emergency home repairs. Though eligibility for these funds is based on income, respondents suggest they play a vital role in encouraging people to remain in their homes in Parkersburg as they can get assistance for costly home 62 repairs. These funds are also used to upgrade structures for businesses. Examples of improvements include improving ADA accessibility and energy efficiency for commercial properties.

It was discussed in an interview with a city planner that Parkersburg’s downtown is both in an Opportunity Zone and in a New Market Tax Credit Zone (NMTC). The

NMTC Program incentivizes community development and economic growth through the use of tax credits that attract private investment to distressed communities. Opportunity

Zones are economically distressed communities, designated by states and territories and certified by the U.S. Treasury Department, in which certain types of investments may be eligible for preferential tax treatment. The tax incentive is designed to spur economic development and job creation in distressed communities by providing these tax benefits to investors (developwoodcountywv.com). Parkersburg is home to two of the 55

Opportunity Zones designated statewide in West Virginia (developwoodcountywv.com).

The downtown being located within an Opportunity Zone and an NMTC zone was presented in a positive light by my interviewee. It is a point of emphasis made by development experts in the region, as these programs open doors for preferential tax treatment, incentives, and can be used to spur private investment due to Parkersburg’s designation as an economically distressed community.

An interview subject explained that the city has implemented a Vacant Property

Registration program as of 2014. This program states that owners of vacant properties must register their property with the city code enforcement. This is because the City of

Parkersburg has determined that “an uninspected and unmonitored vacant building may 63 present a fire hazard, may provide temporary occupancy by transients (including drug users and traffickers), may detract from private and/or public efforts to rehabilitate or maintain surrounding buildings, and that the health, safety and welfare of the public is served by the regulation of such vacant buildings” (Parkersburg Vacant Building

Ordinance). If a property owner does not report a vacant structure, they are subject to a

“fine in the amount of not less than one-hundred dollars ($100.00) nor more than five- hundred dollars ($500.00) for each failure or refusal to pay a required vacant building fee, as applicable” (Parkersburg Vacant Building Ordinance)

It was stated that while $100-$500 may seem insignificant at first, over time these fees add up and do encourage property owners to deal with their vacant properties. It is estimated that since 2015, the city has spent over $1,000,000 on removing slum and blighted properties. Wood County Economic Development states that more than 100 blight structures have been demolished by private and public entities as of 2019. This is paid for through taxpayer dollars and does not include those properties which have been demolished by property owners themselves, due to pressure being put on them by the city to address their property. Some landowners own several properties throughout

Parkersburg such as banks. It was explained that often times these landowners will pre- pay the fee for several years if they know they will not be able to move the property or sell the property quickly.

Measures recently taken such as the creation of the Vacant Property Registration

Program and new housing for senior citizens show that the city is active in tackling problems related to population loss. In tackling job loss, Parkersburg has most recently 64 targeted the manufacturing sector. Parkersburg has seen decades of job loss as a post- industrial city. Hino Motors, a subsidiary of the Toyota Motor Corporation recently purchased a 1 million square foot facility within Parkersburg’s corporation limits and restored the facility’s use back to a manufacturing plant.

Parkersburg has a continued interest in manufacturing. This interest is warranted, and the field has potential which the city could build upon for two reasons. The first is location. Parkersburg is within an 8-hour drive from half of the US population in addition to being situated on the confluence of two major rivers (Ohio and Little Kanawha). This is a selling point of Wood County Economic Development, the leading development organization in the county. The second reason is that Parkersburg is a blue-collar city with overall very low educational attainment. Manufacturing jobs are often held by individuals without college education or with trade school education and licensing. Only

8% of residents 25 years or older in Parkersburg have bachelor’s degrees (2020

Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). This results in a demographic which fits skilled/unskilled labor jobs and factory jobs.

Technology-based economic development (TBED)

The low average educational attainment in Parkersburg makes it difficult to draw technology industries to the city which would provide higher wage employment. 8% of residents 25 years or older in Parkersburg have bachelor’s degrees (2020 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan). In Wood County as a whole 88.8% of residents ages 25 years and older have a high school diploma (or equivalent) or higher (2019 ACS 1-year estimate).

However, strategies do exist to attract the technology industry to West Virginia as a 65 whole and some of these could be promoted to help attract investment in Parkersburg specifically.

Since 2009, The State of West Virginia has made a strong commitment to technology-based economic development (TBED). The blueprint is a set of specific recommendations (strategies and actions) to boost and diversify West Virginia’s economy (West Virginia Blueprint for Technology-Based Economic Development,

2009). The recommendations address West Virginia’s key gaps and technology strengths identified by Battelle in a report published in 2007. The blueprint cites West Virginia’s technology platform strengths into four categories. These categories are Advanced

Energy/Energy-Related Technology, Advanced Materials and Chemicals (perhaps most significant to Parkersburg), Identification, Security and Sensing Technology, and

Molecular Diagnostics, Therapeutics and Targeted Delivery Systems. The WV Blueprint for TBED outlines five key components that need to be addressed in order for West

Virginia to compete successfully in the global marketplace: talent, early-stage seed capital, entrepreneurial know-how, image, and leadership.

Parkersburg has already taken steps in the blueprint suggested areas to make itself a more attractive place to do business. This is in line with the assertion of Di Domenico and Di Domenico (2007) who emphasize that post-industrial cities benefit from making a gradual shift towards other sectors. Investment in the tertiary sector in Dundee, Scotland created a greater number, and variety of employment opportunities in addition to attracting people, companies, and above all capital to the area.

Planning Focus Areas

In the Parkersburg 2030 Comprehensive Plan, ‘Planning Focus Areas’ have been laid out for the city that warrant special planning consideration. There are two types of planning focus areas in the city. The first are Redevelopment/Reinvestment Areas within the city limits which have been determined to have development potential through reuse and infill techniques given location and conducive property features. There is certainly potential for reuse of former warehouses, manufacturing sites, and structures in several of these Planning Focus Areas. While Parkersburg has focused on residential infill over the past 5 years, the most recent Comprehensive Plan update (for 2030) places great emphasis on commercial reuse and infill, suggesting this is where the city plans to head in the future. The second type of planning focus areas are “Future Growth Areas” outside the city limits which may be targeted for annexation. Given the amount of available land for infill with city boundaries, annexation does not seem to be the ideal approach to redevelopment. However, much of the area East, Northeast, South, and Southeast of

Parkersburg’s boundary is unincorporated greenfield, making annexation a tempting option. While Parkersburg has been an elastic city historically and still has the potential to be one, it should be noted that annexation was shown in a study by Newman, Bowman,

Lee, and Kim (2016) to be the second leading cause of increases in vacant land within a city, with disinvestment being the first (29% and 16% respectively). Thus, it seems that annexation is not preferable for Parkersburg and conceivably could cause more difficulty with vacant land in the future. 67

The city has declared ten Redevelopment/Reinvestment Areas. Although not listed in any particular order of importance, the more promising

Redevelopment/Reinvestment Areas appear to be the Downtown Business District, 7th and Mary Street Redevelopment District, and Little Kanawha Riverfront Redevelopment area.

Figure 3

Planning Focus Area/Redevelopment District Map

Note. (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan Draft)

The 7th and Mary Street Redevelopment area is characterized by underutilized warehousing and vacancies. This area includes Jeanette Street and Depot street, where many of the commercial vacancies were found during digitization. This area also includes brownfield sites, rail access and is located in close proximity to downtown Parkersburg.

Proposed action listed in the 2030 comprehensive plan draft includes repurposing the vacant warehouse space and transforming the area into a key industrial corridor.

The 7th and Mary Street area borders the Little Kanawha Riverfront

Redevelopment focus area. The land use in both areas is similar, with the Little Kanawha

Riverfront focus area being a heavier commercial zone. Light industrial development is proposed, as well as entertainment and restaurants along the river. The combination of industrial use with entertainment and restaurants is interesting as the two do not usually mix. However, the scenery of the river provides an opportunity from entertainment and recreational use, while rail access makes industrial and commercial use ideal. It is also stated that the Little Kanawha Riverfront Redevelopment area is targeted as an employment zone. Here it would be possible to create employment in multiple sectors.

Restaurants provide service sector employment, while industrial use provides private sector skilled labor employment. This could make for a creative use not seen in many cities. A large portion of commercial and large parcel vacancies were found in these two areas in the digitization process. Activities such as kayaking, canoeing, and biking are also possible in these areas.

Redevelopment along the Little Kanawha Riverfront and 7th and Mary Street

Redevelopment District is geared toward commercial land use. Anticipated action 69 includes “consolidated redevelopment of prime riverfront business district with rail access with a mix of uses including employment, light industrial, destination entertainment and restaurants on the river, and some higher-density urban multi-family infill” (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, Pg. 35). This area is of great interest to

Wood County Economic Development. In an interview with a leading economic development professional, it was expressed that Depot and Jeanette Street are the locations for commercial infill holding the most potential within Parkersburg. These locations have railroad access in addition to being in close proximity the riverfront.

Several former manufacturing sites which are now abandoned are still sitting along these streets. There is potential for these sites to be redeveloped for a number of purposes such as office space or high-end apartments.

Figure 4

Underutilized land and abandoned warehouses on Jeanette Street.

Note. Photo by author.

Several vacancies were also found in North Parkersburg in close proximity to the

Park Shopping Center. This is in line with the Memorial Bridge Gateway/Park Shopping

District proposed redevelopment district found in the 2030 comprehensive plan draft. In the Downtown Business District proposed action includes redevelopment, reinvestment, and infill intensification. A specific focus on increasing housing through infill and redevelopment with various scales of homes appropriate in different locations such as the

Julia-Ann or Avery Historic District. In addition to this, a specific focus on encouraging redevelopment and infill is encouraged in the parking lots in the lower blocks of the city near the flood wall to better tie the city to the riverfront along the Ohio River. These proposed actions suggest that Parkersburg is attempting to promote a mixture of uses in their downtown, a common strategy found in the literature. Digitization showed sparse vacancies in the downtown area. This suggests an improvement from the early 2000’s when several structures were abandoned or razed for the use of parking. This is a success by the city in following through with proposed action from the 2000 comprehensive plan.

Figure 5

Floodwall Parking Lot

Note. Large permit only parking lot nearby Parkersburg floodwall used by the Bureau of the Fiscal Service employees. Photo by author.

Mapping of Opportunities: Commercial and Residential Vacancies in relation to

Planning Focus Areas

The largest grouping of commercial vacancies found in the parcel analysis were in the Little Kanawha Riverfront Redevelopment Area and the 7th and Mary Street

Redevelopment Area. This matches the qualitative data from the interview process. It was stated by a Wood County Economic Development employee that the best opportunity for infill in Parkersburg is Depot Street and Jeanette Street. As the interview subject’ work is comprised of primarily commercial development, this suggests that these streets have the best commercial infill potential. These streets are located in the 7th and Mary Street 72

Redevelopment Area (Jeanette Street) and the Little Kanawha Riverfront Redevelopment

Area (Depot Street). They are home to former manufacturing sites with structures remaining. In addition to this there is river and rail access along these streets. The City of

Parkersburg’s strategy to target these areas as employment zones is strong and can lead to a multi-sector workforce in a concentrated area.

Figure 6

Commercial Vacancy Cluster Map

Note. Map by author.

The largest cluster of residential vacancies was found north of the 7th and Mary

Street Redevelopment Area and east of Downtown. While some parcels fall under the St.

Mary’s/Dudley Ave. Redevelopment Area, the majority are not in a designated redevelopment/reinvestment area. It would be beneficial for Parkersburg to target this area for reinvestment. As this area of the city is close to downtown, it would be ideal to advertise these vacant homes as such. It is important that these homes are sold or rented to prevent additional vacancies. As stated in the well-known Youngstown, OH 2010

Comprehensive Plan, “The impact on neighborhoods where abandoned houses exist is catastrophic, leading to further disinvestment and abandonment” (City of Youngstown,

2005, p. 31).

Figure 7

Residential Vacancy Cluster Map.

Note. Map by author

Downtown Struggles

It should be noted that Downtown Parkersburg declined significantly from the

1970’s-2000’s as a result of The Grand Central Mall opening in Vienna in 1972. Today,

61 stores and businesses are listed on the Grand Central Mall website. With this being said, Parkersburg has made tremendous improvements in reattracting creative uses and businesses, particularly on Seventh Street and Market Street. Prior to 1970, the CBD served as the retail center for Parkersburg. With the opening of the Grand Central Mall, 75 commercial development started moving out of downtown to other areas of the city and to Grand Central Avenue in Vienna. This trend is common among American downtowns independent of city size or geographic location. Downtowns were historically retail hubs with residents traveling short distances to shop and engage in recreation through the city center. As Robertson (1999) discussed, suburbanization and connectivity of the US highway system in the US allowed retail locations expanded further and further into the urban periphery. This left several buildings vacant in the downtowns of small and mid- sized cities. In Parkersburg, several buildings downtown were demolished as retail left for the Grand Central Mall and associated big box buildings in the adjacent municipality of Vienna. The trend of demolishing and replacing structures with surface parking was common in the late 1990s and early 2000s (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan).

In the early 2000’s surface parking took up 23.6% of land use in the central business district. With this much area being used for parking, the area became increasingly unattractive to new businesses and other entities (2000 Parkersburg

Comprehensive Plan). Property owners often chose the option of demolition because it is more profitable to raze the building and convert it to a parking lot than to pay flood insurance or taxes on the large square footage of a building that is not being used and generating rents/profits. This was a trend which the city strongly discouraged (2000

Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). Today, this trend is largely thwarted, and parking lots are less common in the core of downtown. One of the most significant examples of this trend being addressed by the city is the destruction of the famous Chancellor Hotel at the corner of Seventh Street and Market Street. Seventh and Market Street were the locations 76 of some of the most visible vacancy and surface parking land use in Parkersburg’s downtown (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). Today, Seventh and Market Street is the location of the Parkersburg Brewing Company, Highmark WV’s headquarters, a

Latin Bistro restaurant, and Downtown PKB (a development organization) in addition to an attorney’s office and financial offices.

Affordable Housing is a Challenge, but Demand for Senior Housing Helps Create

Infill

Through the interview process it became apparent that the low rent prices which are present in the Parkersburg market combined with the cost of construction does not lend itself to construction of new housing in the present. These same construction costs in a market such as that of Columbus, OH would not pose the same problem. This is because the benefits would exceed the initial construction costs. In Parkersburg, this is not the case.

A calculation that explains the current affordable housing situation in the city is determined by taking the median household purchase price and dividing it by the median household income in the City of Parkersburg in 2019 was $36,010 while the median purchase price was 118,600. This is an index of 3.29 meaning that median household purchase price is 3.29 times the median family income. On average a home is considered

“affordable” with an index of 3.0 (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 110).

Thus, for many residents, affordable housing remains out of reach and it seems like a long reach that affordable housing will spur infill in the city. However, Parkersburg’s aging population is creating high demand for senior housing. This provides an 77 opportunity for the city to partner with developers to build senior housing on vacant parcels across Parkersburg. Several senior housing complexes have been built in the past few years. These include the Worthington Creek Apartments, Murdoch Heights

Apartments, Rayon Senior Apartments, Edison Hill Commons, Rowan Apartments, and the Newberry Apartments.

All of these new developments were infill projects, although the Newberry

Apartments are not in Parkersburg’s corporation limits. This development is located on the northern border with Vienna. While the nearby Wyndemere Subdivision is located within Parkersburg corporation limits, the Newberry Apartments are located by address in North Hills. Of these recent residential infill projects two are not senior living communities. The Reserve at Edison Hill in south Parkersburg is home to younger families, often with school-aged children. The Rowan Apartments, also in South

Parkersburg is a multifamily housing development.

The units in these apartments fill very quickly. For example, the Rayon Senior

Apartment complex filled within the first few days of accepting applications in January

2019, while those who did not apply in time were put on a waiting list (Parkersburg News and Sentinel, 2019).

Figure 8

Recent Infill Development Map

Note. Map by author.

While the city has prioritized diversifying its housing stock to better fit the desires and needs of young professionals, the strong majority of recent residential infill projects have been directed toward the needs of senior housing. This is not typical of infill projects in most cities. The compact nature of infill usually occurs nearby a downtown area as it allows those who work downtown to live near their workplace and can help build social capital. This trend is not usually favored by or geared toward an older demographic. Instead, it is attractive to younger people who are active during and after work hours. The need for senior housing in Parkersburg combined with its existing 79 vacant and abandoned structures creates a unique opportunity not seen in most cities which implement infill development.

The Rayon Senior Apartments, also known as Parkersburg Elderly Housing, was constructed on the former site of Rayon School in south Parkersburg. The Rayon School closed in 2001 and the structure remained standing until demolition began in September

2017 (WTAP News Parkersburg). On the first day taking applicants, the regional manager with RLJ Management Company, Cristina Smith told local reporters “We’ll be full by the end of today, but we also wait list” (Parkersburg News and Sentinel, 2019).

The building’s two-bedroom units are all handicap-accessible or convertible and open to people ages 55 and older who qualify based on income. A single person must have an annual gross income of $22,500 or less in order to qualify. There is on-site maintenance, secured entry and a community room for events (Parkersburg News and

Sentinel, 2019). This was an estimated $7 million project developed by Ohio-based

Neighborhood Development Services Inc., a nonprofit organization dedicated to revitalizing neighborhoods by increasing home ownership, offering business loans, and creating affordable housing. Neighborhood Development Services, Inc. is active in

Parkersburg due to their approach of conducting market studies to determine where its programs and facilities are needed. Because there is high demand for housing, especially elderly housing in Parkersburg, the company has done a significant amount of work in the city.

Figure 9

Rayon Senior Apartments

Note. Figure 9. View of the Rayon Senior Apartments from the back of the property at

1508 Rayon Street. Photo by author.

Construction of the Murdoch Heights Apartments broke ground in September

2019. The complex was constructed on the former site of the De Sales Heights Academy which had been closed and was demolished in order to start construction of the Murdoch

Heights complex. The project was funded through the allocation of Housing Tax Credits by the West Virginia Housing Development Fund (WVHDF), with investment services provided by Community Housing Affordable Equity Corporation (CAHEC) of Raleigh,

NC. The architectural services were provided by Margolis Architects of Charleston along with design engineering by Allegheny Design of Morgantown (Parkersburg News and

Sentinel, 2019). The Murdoch Heights Apartments is a 44,000-square-foot four-story, 50- unit complex. Murdoch Heights offers large, open concept living spaces, apartments with 81

Energy Star appliances, such as washers, dryers, and other amenities designed for elderly living. This is significant because it results in low utility bills for residents. On-site parking and an exercise room are other amenities which the complex offers to residents.

Mayor Tom Joyce has expressed that he and the city welcomes the recent rise of senior housing development because it is appropriate for the elderly as well as the low-income demographic as it provides safe and appropriate housing.

Figure 10

Murdoch Heights Apartments

Note. Figure 10. Murdoch Heights Apartments at 1602 Murdoch Ave. Photo by author.

The Worthington Creek Apartments are located at 2700 Emerson Avenue.

Construction began on this site in 2014 and was completed in Spring 2015 (Parkersburg

News and Sentinel, 2014). Prior to construction, the existing land use was vacant land.

The developer for the project was MVAH Partners of Cincinnati, Ohio. The residential eligibility is once again 55 years and older, as it serves to add to the senior housing 82 options in Parkersburg. Eligibility is income based and the primary funding source for the project was Low Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC).

Figure 11

Worthington Creek Apartments

Note. Figure 11. Worthington Creek Apartments at 2700 Emerson Ave. Photo by author.

The Edison Hill Commons is a townhouse complex located at 800 Lily Lane.

Prior to construction, the existing land use, like Worthington Creek was vacant land. The developer was also the same developer as Worthington Creek, MVAH Partners based in

Cincinnati, OH. The residential eligibility is income based without age restriction. The units are considered to be multifamily housing. The project was funded primarily through

Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

The Rowan Apartments are located at 509 and 603 Buckeye Street. The land use prior to construction of the apartment complex was a large parking lot and vacant land.

The developer of this Rowan Apartment project was Spire Development based in

Columbus, Ohio. Like the Edison Hill commons, residential eligibility is income-based 83 and there is no age restriction. These units are also multi-family housing units. The project was primarily funded by Low Income Housing Tax Credits.

Figure 12

Rowan Apartments

Note. Figure 12. Rowan Apartments at 509 Buckeye Street. Photo by author.

The Newberry Apartments are located at 235 South Campus View Drive. This complex is in North Hills, WV by address. The previous land use of the Newberry

Apartments was a dormitory for Ohio Valley University. The Dormitory was closed and demolished prior to the construction. The developer for the project was Spire

Development based in Columbus, Ohio. Residential eligibility is income based.

Newberry apartments is a senior living community, only accepting applicants ages 55 and older. The primary funding source for the development was Low Income Housing Tax

Credits.

Figure 13

Newberry Apartments

Note. Figure 13. Newberry Apartments at 235 S Campus View Drive in North Hills, WV.

Photo by author.

RQ#2: What assets does the City of Parkersburg have that can be used to leverage future infill-related redevelopment?

Arts and Culture

Parkersburg is home to an arts and culture committee. The primary focus of this committee is to bring arts, entertainment, and education to the downtown area.

“Artoberfest” is an annual event held in October which combines art and beer in addition to miscellaneous activities. Additionally, the local arts community is active in providing and promoting specialized educational programs for the city’s youth. Artsbridge is an advocacy/educational programming entity in the community. They provide and advocate for specialized arts education. The Schrader Youth Ballet Company provides training in classical ballet technique, as well as in jazz/contemporary and clogging for students ages

3 through adult (schraderyouthballet.com). 85

In an interview with a recently hired city planning employee, it was addressed that the City Planning department is focusing on how these assets can be built on and promoted post-Covid. Parkersburg’s planners are eager to capitalize on this progress to turn downtown into an area that is more walkable, features mixed-use development, and is ultimately more attractive late into the night. Downtown PKB, a Main Street

Organization in the city, works to brand downtown Parkersburg in a way which is attractive to younger people.

Figure 14

Arts Organizations Map

Note. Map by Author. 86

Amenities: Waterfront and Museums

Waterfront redevelopment remains a major challenge due to the city’s floodwall protecting it from the Ohio River’s periodic floods. This makes reconnecting downtown to the riverfront challenging under current circumstances. However, Parkersburg is doing its best to spark interest in redevelopment along its waterfront.

Figure 15

Parkersburg Floodwall

Note. Parkersburg floodwall (Facing Inland). Photo by author.

A goal of recreation along the waterfront is to attract tourists and locals engaging in outdoor recreation to Market Street and other areas of the downtown after their visit to the island. One way the city has strategized to better connect the riverfront to the downtown is through a wayfinding program for Downtown Parkersburg that connects the riverfront to the commercial core and residential historic districts and then connecting that to the waterfront. Riverfront development creates a transition between higher density developments and the riverfront. Development and buildings in this area typically blend 87 in with the surroundings to allow for the use of outdoor recreation and preservation of natural resources. Uses may include marinas, restaurants, food trucks, temporary festivals, parks and recreation, venues, lawns and greens, boat ramps, nature preserves

(2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan).

Figure 16

Parkersburg Floodwall 2

Note. Parkersburg Floodwall (facing waterfront). Photo by author.

Downtown Parkersburg is home to several museums and educational attractions.

These museums include the Oil and Gas Museum, and the Blennerhassett Museum of

Regional History. The Children’s Museum will be opening in 2021. The structure in which it will be located is the site of the former Masonic Temple. The Masonic Temple at

900 Market Street was built in 1915, is a three-story building is owned by Masonic

Properties Inc. and is on the National Register of Historic Places (Parkersburg News and 88

Sentinel, 2019). This development is unique as it is geared toward entertainment, recreation, and education.

Figure 17

Oil and Gas Museum

Note. Oil and Gas Museum at 119 3rd Street. Photo by author.

Figure 18

Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History

Note. Figure 18. Blennerhassett Museum of Regional History at 137 Juliana Street.

(tripadvisor.com)

The Children’s Museum target audience is children up to 8 years old. This museum will have an emphasis on subjects of local interest, science, technology, engineering, arts, and math skills, according to a release from Tres Ross, executive director of the Ross Foundation, the project’s lead investor. Renovations began in 2020, with a grand opening targeted for 2021 (Parkersburg News and Sentinel, 2019). The concept is to create a fun environment for children to experience education through a creative play environment and learn about local surroundings and industries. While the purpose of the museum is in large part for fun, this investment introduces children to the industries of Parkersburg and may lead them to view Parkersburg as a home during 90 young adulthood in effort to keep a younger demographic (Parkersburg News and

Sentinel, 2019). The venture is expected to represent an investment of approximately

$2.5 million and a proposal to allocate $100,000 in Community Development Block

Grant funds to make sidewalk repairs and improvements in front of the building has been made.

Figure 19

Parkersburg Museums Map

Note. Map by author.

Blennerhassett Island is the city’s largest tourism attraction. Blennerhassett Island

Historical State Park features a Palladian mansion on the island and the Blennerhassett

Museum of Regional History at 137 Juliana Street. Blennerhassett Island is visited by

40,000 people yearly (wvstateparks.com). This historical park is accessed by a sternwheeler riverboat from Point Park on 2nd Street in Parkersburg. Tours are offered from May through the last weekend of October.

Figure 20

Masonic Temple (future Children’s Museum)

Note. Figure 20. View of the Masonic Temple (future Children’s Museum) at 900 Market

Street. Photo by Author

Community Involvement, Historic Preservation, and Arts

In response to the disinvestment in the downtown, the Wood County Historical

Preservation Society was established in 1979. In 1981, the Wood County Historical

Landmarks Commission was formed to work with the Historical Preservation Society to defend the structures in downtown. This has been an ongoing challenge, however.

Parkersburg’s downtown has long suffered a lack of liveliness on nights and weekends.

This is in part due to the area being a government and service employment center. This downtown land use correlates with travel patterns from home to work, often by older individuals with families, the typical demographic of government and some service sector employees. Thus, these individuals combined with the aging population as a whole are less likely to spend time during later hours out on the town. However, Parkersburg has a surprisingly strong arts and entertainment community and presence considering its size and blue-collar nature. The Parkersburg Actors Guild Playhouse and Arts Center opened in 1975. The Schrader Youth Ballet is a non-profit corporation established in 1985 to promote and foster dance in the Parkersburg area. These efforts breathe some life into downtown Parkersburg, especially after usual work hours.

Efforts include the non-profit Artsbridge, which was formed in 1986 to help showcase the area’s arts and entertainment opportunities. In addition to this, the Smoot

Theater brings different shows to the community and creates their own productions. All of these organizations are clustered within a 3-4 block area.

Figure 21

Smoot Theater

Note. Figure 21. Smoot Theatre at 213 5th Street. Photo by author.

Community efforts to preserve historic landmarks and resources in Parkersburg gained momentum by the 1980s. Many of the old buildings were torn down during the

1960s and 1970s, but there are many gems that remain. The Wood County Historic

Preservation Society, which was formed to prevent the destruction of the Wood County

Courthouse downtown, leads historic preservation efforts in the city. Several historic preservation groups are active in the community including the Wood County Historic

Landmarks Commission, the West Augusta Historical and Genealogical Society, the

Centennial Chapter of the Daughters of the American Pioneers, the Julia-Ann Square

Historic Community Association, and the Parkersburg High School/Washington Avenue 94

Historic Community Association. Efforts by these organizations and others have resulted in the listing of 38 individual properties, three historic districts, and one multiple resource area in downtown on the National Registry of Historic Places. Properties range from homes and churches to public buildings and bridges.

The three historic districts in Parkersburg are the Julia-Ann Square Historic

District, recognized in 1977, the Avery Street Historic District, designated in 1986, and the Parkersburg High School/Washington Avenue Historic District, designated in 1992.

The Julia-Ann Square and PHS/Washington Avenue Historic Districts are known for their late Victorian, Colonial Revival, Queen Anne, and Jacobethan Revival styled homes.

The homes and new developments in these districts are regulated by ordinance and the Historic Architectural Review Board. In addition to community involvement centered around historic preservation, Parkersburg is home to approximately 50 individual Neighborhood Watch Groups and a Gang Resistance Education and Training program (GREAT) designed to prevent youth crime, violence, and gang involvement.

Figure 22

Parkersburg Historic Districts Map

Note. Figure 22. Map by author.

Parkersburg’s historic and cultural offerings are currently marketed through the

Greater Parkersburg Convention and Visitors Bureau (CVB). Also known as Visit

Greater Parkersburg, this non-profit aims to strengthen the area’s economy by promoting it as a destination for travel, meetings, and conventions. The Greater Parkersburg CVB distributes promotional materials and hosts a website that provides information to the general public about the area’s attractions, events, lodging, dining, recreational and visitor services. 96

Since the year 2000, there have been significant changes made to Parkersburg and its landscape. While the city has continued to lose population, great improvements have been made to the Central Business District, accommodations have been made for the city’s aging population, and Parkersburg remains the economic and employment leader of the Mid-Ohio Valley. Parkersburg is a city that is business friendly. While Parkersburg is holding on to industries of the past, the city also is diversifying its workforce and aiming to attract a younger population. Maintaining a young demographic is perhaps the greatest challenge for the city. The youth is indeed the future and efforts need to be made with local higher education institutions in order to create opportunity for educated young professionals to live and work in the city. Higher-income housing will also be an important piece of this puzzle. While annexation remains on the table, Parkersburg emphasizes infill as its newfound primary redevelopment strategy. We hope that after the pandemic, even progress will be made in targeted reuse and infill long the riverfront, potentially creating a buzz in the city again.

Discussion

Education Partnership Opportunities

The city should look to expand and develop internship programs and partnerships with WVU-Parkersburg, Mountain State College, and Ohio Valley University in attempt to provide young professionals with local opportunities post-graduation. Parkersburg often falls victim to “brain drain”, or young adults from Parkersburg who attend college and do not return home for work. It is important that the city remain a viable and competitive option for educated childhood residents to start careers later in life in an 97 array of fields. This demographic tending to not return as they start their professional and adult lives contributes to the low educational attainment in the city. The work that the city of Parkersburg has done with local institutions of higher education is in line with the work of Williams and Pendras (2013). Parkersburg is a great example of a post-industrial city which Williams and Pendras allude to in their writing. Post-industrial cities often have low levels of educational attainment. For this reason, it is important that these cities work with nearby institutions of higher education to keep young professionals around the city (Williams, Pendras 2013).

The three colleges and universities located in and near Parkersburg have a combined enrollment of approximately 4,800 students as of 2018, with 4,200 of those students attending WVU-Parkersburg. These institutions coordinate with the region’s

Workforce Investment Board to identify new education and training programs that can prepare residents for jobs in leading regional industries. WVU-Parkersburg offers certificate programs, associate, bachelors, graduate degrees in a range of fields. Mountain

State College grants associates degrees in business, legal, medical, and computer technology fields. Ohio Valley University is a private liberal arts school offering associate degrees, baccalaureate degrees, and endorsements.

Using strong sectors as redevelopment assets

It is also important that Parkersburg looks to expand upon fields in which they are regional leaders such as healthcare and government. Parkersburg is the seat of Wood

County in addition to being home to 95% of the US Bureau of the Fiscal Service employees. The remaining 5% are based in Washington, DC (fiscal.treasury.gov/). The 98

Bureau of the Fiscal Service superseded The Bureau of Public Debt in 2012, as The

Bureau of Public Debt consolidated with the Financial Management Service, creating the

Bureau of the Fiscal Service. The Bureau of Public Debt had a presence in Parkersburg since the 1950’s. In 1993, the Bureau transferred the majority of its operations to

Parkersburg. There is also an IRS branch which moved all of its operations to

Parkersburg and is responsible for a significant percentage of the downtown employment population. The Bureau of Public Debt found a second location in Parkersburg in 1957.

The reasons for choosing Parkersburg as the location were the existing labor force the city had at the time, the city’s central location between Washington, DC and Chicago, IL, and in 1957 Parkersburg was not considered to be a prime target in case of enemy, particularly Soviet Union attack (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 33,

Parkersburg: A Bicentennial History Allen, 1985). It is important that Parkersburg develops housing stock to keep the employees of these government offices living within the city limits. These are likely to be higher paying jobs than manufacturing jobs and would raise the city’s tax base. As mentioned previously, WVU’s Medicine Camden

Clark Medical Center recently underwent two expansion projects. The projects include a new Emergency Room and Cardiovascular Care Center, as well as a new clinic/office building for Parkersburg Cardiology (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity

Zone Prospectus, 2019).

Manufacturing in Present-Day Parkersburg

In planning literature “creative” uses of defunct industrial sites are popular and the employment shift nationally is going towards the service sector. Manufacturing is often seen as something of the past in today’s global economy. Many planning scholars would state that Parkersburg is living in the past and needs to adapt. While I agree that

Parkersburg must diversify its economy, manufacturing still has a place in the city. As mentioned previously, Parkersburg is a blue-collar city with overall very low educational attainment. Therefore, it will be difficult to draw tech industries to the city. There remains a significant manufacturing workforce, as the city is home to an older and working-class population. Manufacturing in addition to trades are great options for young people with a high school education or less. Job placement programs with trade schools could be a great way to keep young trade workers and manufacturing workers in the community. Focusing too narrowly on manufacturing may lead to the city missing out on some opportunities in other fields in which it is strong.

Due to Parkersburg’s rich manufacturing history, several former warehouses and manufacturing sites exist within the city. This provides an opportunity for reuse and infill projects. The selling point of Parkersburg’s location being within an 8-hour drive from

50% of the US Population (Wood County Economic Development) was confirmed through an interview with an economic development professional. From this interview, I was told that several calls come into Develop Wood County regarding warehousing and manufacturing opportunities. 100

The Japanese commercial vehicle manufacturer, Hino, opened a plant in June of

2019. This facility was initially constructed as the logistics center for Coldwater Creek, a women’s apparel company. The repurposed facility is 1,000,000 square feet. Prior to the

Coldwater Creek development, this facility was outside of Parkersburg’s corporation limits. Parkersburg annexed the property in the early 2000’s to locate it within city boundaries. It was stated in an interview with a city development director that there was not adequate space within existing boundaries to build the facility, thus being the rationale for annexation. As Hino purchased this property after annexation placed the facility within city lines, this is considered an infill project and a reuse project. This has created 250 jobs (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus,

2019) and helps the city’s tax base. It is of interest to the city to attract suppliers of Hino to open within the city limits as well. Attracting suppliers would serve as the base for an

“industry cluster” in the commercial automotive industry in the region.

An industry cluster is a system of interconnected businesses, suppliers, and associated institutions in a particular field. The term was introduced in the 1990s by

Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter and has become a standard unit for analyzing a region’s economic prospects. Business clusters are a more strategic approach to economic development than just attracting the next big company because they exchange ideas regularly through daily business communications and transactions, leading to innovation, which is essential to economic growth (Porter, 1990). Parkersburg features numerous defunct manufacturing sites that make repurposing buildings for a new 101 industry cluster possible. If not, these numerous sites can still be repurposed from their original use for other kinds of businesses.

Critique and Suggestions for Moving Forward

While manufacturing does have a place in Parkersburg, it is important that the city aims to expand its presence as a healthcare, government, and financial regional leader.

The majority of focus on commercial infill and overall commercial opportunities through the interview process was on warehousing, industrial, and manufacturing opportunities.

The healthcare and government sectors are tremendous assets to Parkersburg. As stated by Di Domenico, Di Domenico (2007), postindustrial cities which make a gradual shift toward other sectors create a greater number and variety of employment opportunities, while attracting people, companies, and capital to the area. In addition to this, healthcare and government employment is secure high paying. Provided these employees are

Parkersburg residents, this results in an increase to the city’s tax base in addition to a higher owner-occupancy rate leading to greater investment in the city. Diversifying the local economy is a good method to provide a variety of employment opportunities which will make the city a more appealing option to younger residents and recent college graduates.

Parkersburg’s approach to targeting specific areas of the city for infill development is a good strategy. It is important to focus on specific areas in which infill is most needed and focuses the development based on the area’s character and property features. It should also be brought into consideration by the city to prioritize infill where markets are already strong. These targeted areas include those listed as 102

Redevelopment/Reinvestment areas. While land banking is mentioned briefly in the 2030

Comprehensive Plan Draft, the city does not appear to have used this approach in the past. It is stated that working with Downtown PKB and Wood County Development

Authority to identify infill and reuse sites is on the city’s agenda. In addition to this the

2030 draft states that an Urban Renewal and Land Reuse Agency is being established by the city. Land banks are designed to acquire and maintain problem properties. These properties are then transferred back to responsible ownership and productive use in accordance with local land use goals and priorities, creating a more efficient and effective system to eliminate blight. A land bank would serve as an excellent strategy to hold blighted property and ensure that the properties’ future use aligns with community needs and existing zoning.

Smart Decline should be considered by Parkersburg. If it is determined that

Parkersburg will not reach its former population, some measures must be taken to “right- size” the city. While some cities have taken the approach of depopulating rundown neighborhoods and “re-greening” once built-up areas, depopulating neighborhoods does not appear to be necessary in Parkersburg. Most neighborhoods are still well populated and strong in Parkersburg despite some vacancies. De-populating neighborhoods is likely to cause unnecessary fractures to neighborhoods throughout the city. Taking the approach to re-green former industrial sites in some locations may be combined with infilling in other areas. While re-greening may not be an appropriate strategy in the 7th and Mary

Street Redevelopment Area, it may be possible for some structures near downtown. 103

Adding greenspace to areas in and around downtown can add recreation and an attractive aesthetic to the city.

One way to manage smart decline might be to focus on making Parkersburg a

“15-Minute City.” The 15-Minute city is increasing in popularity in the planning world

(Duany, Steuteville, 2021). Though increasing in popularity, the 15-minute city is defined differently by different people. What is agreed upon is that it is ideal for all of a city’s amenities to be accessible within a 15-minute walk or bike ride for city dwellers without a car. A 15-minute walk is about ¾ mile, and a 15-minute bike ride is about 3 miles.

Focusing on redeveloping residential areas within 15 minutes of urban amenities might be a good way for Parkersburg to focus its resources while managing to shrink intelligently. This can be attractive to younger residents who wish to walk or bike to the downtown for recreation or for work. Parkersburg should implement a mix of uses throughout the city which tie more amenities to fringe areas of the city. As it exists, there is retail business and access to food located throughout the city, both in North and South

Parkersburg which is an asset which the city can capitalize on. Building and Promoting

Parkersburg as a 15-minute city would likely be the first city to do so in the Mid-Ohio

Valley and likely one of the earliest throughout Appalachia. This concept should be considered by the city as Parkersburg has an opportunity to be a pioneer in this effort.

As Rhodes and Russo (2013) state, several cities have “sought to attract economic investment through a process of rebranding and reinvention, making themselves more attractive to business through the deployment of strategies such as reducing taxes, subsidizing private development, decontaminating brownfield sites, targeted place- 104 marketing, developing new industries, and enhancing existing industrial clusters”

(Rhodes and Russo, 2013, pg. 308). However, the problems posed by shrinkage have also meant that cities have had to address high rates of vacancy and neighborhood deterioration, relying largely upon strategies such as reinvestment in neighborhoods, demolition, and the curtailment of new housing construction. This does apply to

Parkersburg as the city has implemented tax reductions and plans to develop new industries while building upon existing industrial clusters. Parkersburg has not taken the approach of curtailment of housing construction, and reinvestment to targeted neighborhoods. It is important that the city focuses on preventing additional vacancies before building new housing, as accommodations are made to the aging population. A major problem which shrinking cities often face is the lack of employment opportunities and capital investment. In Parkersburg, there remains a strong workforce. As of

December 2018, the unemployment rate in Wood County was 5.3%. There appears to be more potential and a stronger workforce in Parkersburg than in many cities discussed in

Rhodes and Russo’s study such as Detroit and Youngstown.

It is important to consider Parkersburg’s status as the economic and employment hub of the Mid-Ohio Valley. Despite being considered a mid-sized city, there is continued potential for Parkersburg to be the economic engine for the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Parkersburg is the seat of Wood County, WV. Wood County employs 1,985 healthcare workers at Parkersburg’s WVU Medicine’s Camden Clark Medical Center (City of

Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019). It is a government hub employing county government workers in addition to 2,000 Bureau of Fiscal Service 105

Employees accentuating its local government presence with a federal government employment presence (City of Parkersburg, West Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus,

2019). In the insurance field, Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield West Virginia is located and headquartered in Parkersburg, employing 450 people (City of Parkersburg, West

Virginia Opportunity Zone Prospectus, 2019).

Parkersburg’s arts organization presence leads to potential for attracting pedestrian presence and traffic on nights and weekends. While the arts organizations are certainly an asset, it is unlikely that this alone will serve to attract a consistent nightlife in the downtown. It is important that the downtown is targeted as a mixed-use corridor which adds housing variety. The downtown is primarily an employment center. After work hours, pedestrian presence is not strong. Adding a more residential presence in the downtown can serve to make the downtown more inclusive and increases walkability.

Parkersburg’s downtown is the employment center of the Mid-Ohio Valley. As the employment center of an 8-county region, Parkersburg’s overall population and commercial core serves as an asset to be built upon. Businesses such as the Parkersburg

Brewing Company serve as assets to the downtown which will add to a livelier downtown.

A creative infill strategy in the downtown could be to replace the parking lot used by the Bureau of Fiscal services with a multi-story parking garage. This would allow for a new creative use regarding the large parking lot near the city’s riverfront. This concept comes from Lehmann’s article, Understanding and Quantifying Urban Density Toward more Sustainable City Form (2019). Infill can take the form of building upwards as 106 opposed to expanding outwards. The concept is that high-rise buildings can result in more floor space than the dimensions of the parcel allow (Lehmann, 2019).

Conclusion

Due to Parkersburg reaching a built-out stage, infill is a practical and necessary tool which the city can and has used for development. With increasing challenges of annexation comes a further need for infill within Parkersburg. Yet another challenge exists for infill as residences and business which are located in Wood County outside of

Parkersburg City limits (or any incorporated limits) come with fewer taxes and fees than those located within city boundaries. This is being addressed through the Real Property

Improvement Tax Rebate Program. With the implementation of the Real Property

Improvement Tax Rebate Program in December 2019, property owners who make an investment in Parkersburg have a portion of their property taxes remitted back to them by the city. The goal of this program is to encourage business to locate within the city limits.

As Kim, Newman, Jiang (2020) stated, tax incentive programs on infill development can greatly increase private investment on vacant land and abandoned structures. While

Parkersburg hopes to attract more commercial developments in the future, the majority of infill projects addressed in this document have been residential.

As Parkersburg was the earliest location in Wood County to be developed, much of the housing stock is old and at risk of declining. With this being said, projected housing unit needs continue to be met. 74% of housing units in Parkersburg are single- family detached. Diversifying the housing stock in Parkersburg has been a highlight in each comprehensive plan since 2000. The city is beginning to diversify its housing stock, 107 most significantly in relation to its aging population. Several infill projects highlighted in this document serve to provide housing to elderly citizens. With Parkersburg’s aging population, it remains a challenge to attract younger people to the city. In the future, tools such as mixed-use development and non-traditional housing should be used in attempt to bring a younger demographic to the city.

Parkersburg has been aggressive in recent years in targeting and removing slum and blighted property, which stems from the old housing stock. As accommodations are made for senior citizens, more residential properties will be up for sale. It is important that these homes are rented or purchased to prevent additional residential vacancies. As it stands, owner-occupied units make up 59.5% of residential units and renter-occupied units make up 40.5% (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Draft).

Improving Parkersburg’s existing properties and addressing its slum and blighted properties continues to be a critical, yet difficult, component of Parkersburg’s revitalization process. Recent market conditions in West Virginia and Appalachia have hindered efforts to entice developers to build new or to rehabilitate housing within the city. As Parkersburg is an entitlement community with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, use of CDBG grants should be leveraged to make repairs to older housing. While results of the Real Property Improvement Tax Rebate Program are limited and mostly yet to be seen, Parkersburg has infilled several housing units over the past decade. Five of the six housing developments highlighted in this document are senior living complexes. The Edison Hill Commons is the outlier as a townhouse community which is a home to younger people and families. 108

Re-creating a lively downtown is on Parkersburg’s agenda in the post-Covid era.

Promoting the arts and waterfront appear to be promising methods of accomplishing this task. One way the city has strategized to better connect the riverfront to the downtown is through a wayfinding program for Downtown Parkersburg. This proposed wayfinding program ideally connects the riverfront to the commercial core and residential historic districts. Riverfront development creates a transition between higher density developments and the riverfront (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan). This proposed wayfinding program is an attractive way to increase tourism and leave non-residents with a positive impression of the city.

The emphasis on “Planning Focus Areas” laid out in the 2030 Comprehensive

Plan suggests that infill and reuse is the primary method of future development for

Parkersburg. While “Future Growth Areas” focused on annexation remain part of the city’s strategy, it is now taking a backseat to building from within. Residents have long expressed through surveys that they felt the city has not done enough to develop using the assets which already exist in the city. This includes residential and commercial vacancies which can be put to use. Parkersburg is in an interesting situation in terms of annexation because the city is not boxed in. To its eastern and southern boundaries, there remains room for annexation. Many cities choose infill due to lack of area needed to expand, while Parkersburg is choosing to infill due to existing infrastructure and legislative changes. The infill projects such as senior housing developments, the Children’s

Museum, and Hino are signs that Parkersburg is providing great services to its residents. 109

Parkersburg’s downtown revitalization since the 2000s shows tremendous growth and resiliency in addition to listening to the desires of residents.

Research in the future regarding development in Parkersburg should focus on the outcomes of the Real Property Improvement Tax Rebate Program. In addition to this, research should focus on the balance of annexation to infill developments and commercial to residential infill projects. The state of Parkersburg’s downtown post-Covid era and the city’s age demographics are important pieces of research as well. Overall, urban planning research should focus more than it currently does on small and mid-sized cities, in order to tell a more complete story.

110

References

1. (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan pg. 80).

2. (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan).

3. (2000 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 33).

4. (2019 ACS 1-Year Estimate).

5. (2019 US Census Estimate).

6. (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan).

7. (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 52).

8. (2020 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, pg. 68).

9. (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan).

10. (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, p.25).

11. (2030 Parkersburg Comprehensive Plan, Pg. 35).

12. The ‘wicked problem’ of planning for housing development. Housing Studies,

26(6), 951– 960. doi:10.1080/02673037.2011.593128 (Adams, 2011, p. 953).

13. Parkersburg: A Bicentennial History (Allen, 1985).

14. Postindustrialization and the City of Consumption: Attempted Revitalization in

Asbury Park, New Jersey. (Ammon, 2015).

15. Revitalisation gone wrong: Mixed-income public housing redevelopment in

Toronto's Don Mount Court (August, 2016).

16. (ARC, 2014).

17. Understanding residents’ attitudes toward infill development at Finnish urban

suburbs (Arvola and Pennanen, 2014). 111

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