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MORGANTOWN - Plans to bring new life to Sunnyside, the blighted residential district north of West Virginia University's downtown campus, are getting a strong start this season with the hiring of a new executive director for the Campus Neighborhoods Revitalization Corp.
More familiarly known as Sunnyside Up, CNRC, a nonprofit partnership between the city of Morgantown and WVU, is beginning implementation of the Comprehensive Revitalization Plan it committed last November, according to board President Reed Tanner.
Sunnyside is on a southwest-facing hillside along the Monongahela River between WVU's downtown and Evansdale campuses.
Long considered a student enclave, the densely occupied neighborhood accommodates at least 10 percent of the university's population and 10 percent of the city's population, according to CNRC estimates. The high concentration of transient residents led to neglect and, finally designation by the city as a blighted district in 2003.
With heavy input from neighborhood and city residents,...