LeTourneau to Longview: Too Much Blight

When LeTourneau University opened its Belcher performing arts center on Stegall Drive in Longview, TX, it was thought as a possible major anchor for area development. But 10 years later, despite the university’s award-winning campus and $20 million performance hall, it is held back by the surrounding neighborhood’s crime and blight. University president Dale Lunsford recently told the Interstate 20 Corridor Small Area Plan Committee that a plan is necessarily to improve the neighborhood.

Such a plan could be released in summer 2017; Lunsford and his committee colleague are working on small area plans for Longview’s Interstate 20 corridor and downtown. Freese and Nichols, based in Fort Worth, is helping with the plans through a $215,000 contract with the city and Longview Economic Development Corp.

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