Vince DeJoy has been named the Warren City Planner. File photo

WARREN, Pa. — “I am truly excited for the future of Warren.”

Vince DeJoy has been tapped to lead planning and development efforts for the city of Warren, Pa.

And he comes with knowledge of the challenges facing communities in this region.

“My initial thought is that Warren is such as great community with charming historical character, a strong sense of community spirit, and natural assets such as having a river running through the city,” he said. “It also has strong neighborhoods and a downtown that has a strong corporate headquarters presence that brings people working downtown, and many historic buildings that are well suited for adaptive mixed reuse projects.”

DeJoy comes to Warren with experience in this realm — he served as director of development for the city of Jamestown before retiring in November 2019. Prior to that, he was an elected member of the Jamestown City Council during a career in the private sector in healthcare marketing and sales.

“Vince is a welcome addition to City staff,” Warren City Manager Nancy Freenock said. “He has an engaging personality and is very outgoing. He will bring a fresh perspective to city staff and will be instrumental in moving the city forward.”

DeJoy highlighted collaboration successes in Jamestown including grant funding for the New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative as well as funding in 2018 from the American Planning Association to implement an urban design plan.

“Many of the projects have been completed such as National Comedy Center, the Hilton DoubleTree Hotel, the Robert H. Jackson Center, Reg Lenna Center for the Arts, and other projects in various stages of development,” he said. “But for COVID — downtown Jamestown had begun to see vibrancy and excitement.”

While his first day in Warren was Monday, he’s already developing a vision for the future.

“The fundamentals and natural beauty are there — we need to build upon them in a way that celebrates the historical charm and yet can bring about new development to increase the tax base and population,” he said, specifically highlighting the importance of ecotourism.

He said his wife spent some time living in Warren before they were married and “encouraged me to seek this position because she also has a strong positive feeling about this community and wants us to become a part of the fabric of Warren.”

He also realized right out of the date that there are “good people working in the city administration.

“There is a desire to grow and continue to make Warren a great place to live, do business and offer reasons for people to come visit from outside the area and everyone is so friendly and helpful.”

Freenock said she’s working to revise the city’s administrative code so the city planner position — filled by David Hildebrand for nearly 30 years can be reconfigured.

She said — assuming council approves the plan — that DeJoy will be responsible for zoning, as well as code enforcement as well as the city’s CDBG program, Tree City USA designation and the DEP annual recycling grant in conjunction with the Department of Public Works.

“And, perhaps most importantly, Vince will bring his sales and marketing skills to aid the City in its redevelopment efforts,” Freenock said.

DeJoy said he’ll focus on getting “up to speed” on the projects already in the works as well as meeting the people involved.

“I also want to get to know people that live and do business here to get their thoughts and input on future development plans and projects,” he explained. “I have learned from previous experience that community input and buy-in are so important in the decision for the direction of future development projects, and I trust that we will find that right mixture of blending in the historical and established with the new models for sustainable development and growth.”