The purpose of the Strategic Land Use Plan is to establish a long-term vision on how the township will look in terms of economic development in the next 10 to 20 years, according to Jeffrey Payne, the township’s zoning director.
The township, which is working in conjunction with the Miami Valley Regional Planning Commission, has been hosting a series of public meetings over the last year to get feedback from residents about what should be included in the strategic plan.
The township distributed surveys in January and again in May that asked residents about their preferences for residential land use and the types of businesses they would like to have.
“Thursday is the unveiling of that year’s worth of work,” Payne said. “This information is vital so that the township can begin the process of updating its future land use plan, and then also making updates to the official zoning resolution.”
The township’s zoning code has been a frequent topic of discussion in past community meetings, according to Sheila Back, a member of the Strategic Land Use Planning committee and captain of the township’s Neighborhood Association.
The township’s current zoning resolution was last updated in 1992.
“In today’s era, we have a lot of changes in the way businesses establish themselves, the types of businesses, we have different approaches to housing. The current code isn’t really quite equipped to address those kinds of changes,” Payne said. “Doing an update in the code or the zoning resolution will help us modernize the zoning code. As well as allowing it to support the new vision that would be established through the strategic plan.”
Back, who has been a resident of the township for seven years, said she hopes Thursday’s meeting will address businesses that are interested in coming into the township.
“I think the meetings have been going well. The goal seems to be common among community members. We all would like to have some type of grocery store and we all would like to have some type of community facility,” Back said.
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