The proposed plan was reviewed in December by the Tipp City Planning Board, which recommended the document’s approval by Tipp City council.
Matt Spring, city planner, said the city’s current comprehensive plan was adopted in 2003. While that plan also looked at Monroe Twp., the new plan concentrates more on the city itself and an area that realistically could be served by the city in coming years, the planning board was told.
The city hired consultants in 2015 to conduct public meetings and take other steps on the road to developing a new plan.
The plan is a “long range planning tool that identifies the city’s policies and strategies related to the physical, economic and social development of Tipp City,” consultant Wendy Moeller of Compass Point Planning said.
The proposed new document is a streamlined version of previous plans in part to make it more user friendly.
“We are focusing on somebody can pick this up, read it and understand fairly quickly what the city wants,” Moeller said.
The city council will consider the proposed document, with a recommendation for approval from the planning board.
Stacy Wall, planning board chair, said that although the plan includes an implementation program and a five-year review, the hardest part of any planning document once adopted is to ensure it is used.
Input for the plan was received from residents, property owners and business owners with a number of opportunities for input. Those participating were asked “to imagine what Tipp City might look like in the next 10 to 20 years,” Moeller said.
In addition to community input sessions, the consultants talked with people at the city’s Yuletide Winters Gathering and Chamber of Commerce Winter Gala in late 2015. City staff also talked with students at Tippecanoe High School and with senior citizens.
The proposed plan includes a list of guiding principles for the community’s future. They are:
Maintain Tipp City’s small town character
Protect neighborhoods and activity centers
Ensure housing choice
Broaden tax base
Ensure adequate and efficient infrastructure.
The plan was broken into three priority growth areas beginning with the first priority of ensuring the stability of neighborhoods and business activity area within the existing city boundaries.
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