LISBON — Officials in Columbiana County’s seven walkable downtowns now have individual stats regarding their vibrancy, business makeup and vacancies, along with an online data base regarding available properties.

“Now you have to think about where you want to be,” Town Center Associates Executive Director Mark Peluso said.

Peluso and Town Center Associates Program Director Mara Dowdy presented the information to officials from Salem, East Liverpool, Wellsville, Leetonia, Columbiana, East Palestine and Lisbon based on research by the Pennsylania firm which specializes in downtowns.

The Columbiana County Port Authority contracted with Town Center Associates to gather stats about the downtowns, looking at vacancies, building stock, building availability, facades, signage and building conditions, all with a goal of increasing the vibrancy of the downtowns. The firm previously worked with the village of Lisbon, the city of Salem and the city of Columbiana on their downtowns.

During a kickoff meeting earlier this summer, Dowdy estimated that potential downtown businesses could total 400 to 500 and if those businesses create six jobs each, that’s 2,400 to 3,000 jobs.

During the more recent workshop, she shared the results of the firm’s data collection, including current business compositions, vacant downtown properties, available properties and developable land opportunities. A downtown vibrancy indicator revealed the percentage of retail, food/drink, personal service and arts/entertainment businesses in each downtown. A higher level of those types of businesses leads to a more vibrant downtown.

During the kickoff, she reminded the officials that their first look showed just six buildings for sale and two available for lease. This time, she said the number of buildings available for either sale or lease was 27. All 27 of those buildings are featured on the website at downtown properties.net/ColumbianaCounty.

In the seven downtowns, she said there are 484 total units, with 124 vacant, for a vacancy rate of 26 percent. Of those 124 vacancies, she said 25 were available, with two more available but not vacant, leaving 99 vacancies not available for sale or lease. She said that makes it difficult to increase downtown vibrancy when there are that many vacancies that aren’t available for a new business to occupy.

She also broke down the mix of businesses on street level, with 20 percent retail, 11 percent food/drink, 6 percent personal service, 1 percent arts/entertainment, 3 percent government/community, 14 percent office, 10 percent miscellaneous, 9 percent residential and 26 percent vacant. The ideal mix would be 0 percent for vacant, residential, miscellaneous and office, 5 percent each for government/community and arts/entertainment, 20 percent for personal service, 25 percent food/drink and 35 percent retail.

With the current makeup, Dowdy said the seven downtowns have a combined vibrancy rate of 41 percent, a number which can increase if some of that business mix is changed to less vacancies, less office, less residential and less miscellaneous at street level.

“A vibrant business district strengthens the entire community,” she said.

In talking about why that matters, Dowdy said it comes down to this: homes in communities with a high vibrancy index sell for higher prices. The higher the vibrancy score, the higher the home values, she said.

Peluso talked about suggested next steps for the officials in the downtowns to put the data to use, focusing on five strategies to consider.

Those strategies include: review the current business mix and consider priority areas; consider the current vibrancy index for your downtowns and reasonable goals for increasing vibrancy; review the vacant property list and let TCA know of any changes; promote available properties by adding a link to the city or village website; and share this information with council, planning commission and zoning commission.

Peluso explained that some of this information can be used to formulate policies, such as a vacant property ordinance. He said a lot of things can be done to reduce vacancies, suggesting that property owners should at least put a sign in the window with contact information if they want to sell. He also talked about enforcing maintenance codes.

The next workshop will look at building and signage improvements.

mgreier@mojonews.com