IF YOU GO
What: Dayton Mall area master plan open house.
When: 4 to 6 p.m. Sept. 14.
Where: Miami Twp. Government Center, 2700 Lyons Road.
MASTER PLAN ELEMENTS
Unlocking potential
Build a new township/public square
Add 500-700 of new market rate housing
Connect the Dayton Mall to a Main Street environment
Creating a district
Launch a branding campaign
Develop form-based standards to improve architecture and develop streetscape conditions across the area.
Firmly establish the area as an “entertainment district.”
Improving access, growing greener
Build eight miles of new bike and pedestrian pathways to interconnect the district and its surroundings.
Improve conditions of the Exit 44 interchange.
Implement strategies to make the mall area feel safer.
Source: www.planthemallarea.com
A draft of the Dayton Mall area master plan — including images of the vision for the business district in the next decade or two — will be on public display next month.
Consultants are now working on estimated costs for areas targeted as key locations — or catalytic sites — of the plan with the goal of finalizing them by the open house set for Sept. 14.
Those catalytic sites include:
- Lyon's Ridge, south of the mall along Lyon's Ridge Drive;
- Mad River Station, at the intersection of Mad River Road and Mall Ring Road;
- Prestige Summit, a combination of the area along Prestige Plaza Drive south of Ohio 725 and Mall Woods Drive north of Ohio 725.
“What we’re now doing is we’re testing the financial viability — we’re doing three proformas for these locations,” said Steve Kearney, project manager for Stantec’s Urban Places Group.
Those attending the event, set from 4 to 6 p.m. at the Miami Twp. Government Center, “can expect to see a series of posters that will lay out the entire 10- to 20-year vision and plan for the Dayton Mall area,” he added. “And there will also be posters of specific implementation actions that the community can weigh in on.”
Stantec’s staff will be seeking input on “what are the most important” elements of the plan, Kearney said. “What should we prioritize? Which should occur in the first five years versus what should occur … in a later time frame?”
The open house was initially penciled in for June after a March forum at which Stantec outlined preliminary plans. Pushing the date back gives the public more context of how the plan is taking shape, officials said.
“The concept of what we were going to do at the open house has evolved a little bit,” said Miami Twp. Community Development Director Chris Snyder. “I think originally the open house was viewed as … providing more conceptual (ideas) of what the planned recommendations were going to be.
“We felt we really needed to have the whole document … more completely finished in order for the public to have a better context of how all of this fits together.”
Snyder has been spearheading the master plan effort for the Miami Twp.-Dayton Mall Joint Economic Development District board since it hired Stantec last fall to complete the plan surrounding the 45-year-old mall.
The goal of the JEDD, a joint operation involving the township and Miamisburg, is to keep the mall area a vibrant district through both short- and long-term projects. Surrounded by Miamisburg, Washington Twp. and West Carrollton, the 45-year-old Miami Twp. complex accounts for more than $200 million in annual sales and the 2.2-square-mile master plan area employs more than 8,000 workers.
The completed document will serve as a guide for future development, Snyder said.
“This plan is part of a larger process, which is really the process of looking at — from a community-wide standpoint — what do we all want to see the Dayton Mall area, as a whole, become over the next 10 to 15 years?” he said. “What do we envision the direction that we’re going in out here? And are there things that we think we need to be doing that we think can improve the economics and the environment and lifestyle that’s out there today?”
About the Author
