Ross County — A new “Comprehensive Plan” for the county is starting up, and Ross County Commissioner Jack Everson described it in the “Annual Celebration Breakfast” of Greater Chillicothe & Ross County Development.
Economic development and community plans were the topics of seven speakers in the two-hour event at the Chillicothe County Club on December 11th. In my previous story from the event, I covered local economic development director Tammy Eallonardo, and keynote speaker Lydia Mihalik, Director of the Ohio Development of Development.
Commissioner Everson focused on the Ross County Comprehensive Plan that will replace the 1990s plan. He outlined its eight characteristics and four guidelines in more than nine minutes, and you can hear him in his own words in my below video.
He said that when the city and county took the lead role in a regional “epic plan” for the Appalachian Community Grant that is under way to renovate Yoctangee Park, they asked themselves what to do if that grant request failed.
Everson said they decided to look at the future. They did get the grant, but went ahead with the plan, which is currently gearing up, and has an online survey form. He praised Ross County Planner Devon Shoemaker, who led both the Appalachian Community Grant and is leading the county study.
Among its characteristics, Everson said “Future Land Use” will guide the best use of available land in the county’s 16 townships: where housing, businesses, and agriculture will go or stay.
In its Housing Plan, Everson said a major focus will be where that is best suited, and dealing with commuters. With 10,000 employees to be working in the Intel plant in New Albany and Mahonda battery plant in Jeffersonville, where will they live?
He said that is “a beautiful opportunity” to house them when they commute on the US 23 or US 35 corridors. (Everson said his realtor wife constantly gets requests from Central Ohio wanting to get away from Columbus crime and move south to Ross County.)
The Thoroughfare Plan will show how to get existing transportation to service the Housing Plan. He said we do not want to build another Bridge Street, and do not want rush hour to be a thing in Ross County.
Economic Development will accumulate many ideas on what businesses to attract.
With agriculture a major part of the county economy, Farmland Preservation will show how to keep ag and its surrounding assets.
Recreation will show how to keep the community healthy – with many projects already underway, where to put them, and what they entail. Everson said they want to “stack” recreational opportunities regionally – so they are lasting experiences rather than lone events – to keep visitors here longer to add to the local economy.
And, Environmental Stewardship will show how we can do all that with clean energy, to protect the environment, and beautify the experiencing of Ross County.
He finished with the guidelines of the plan.
Growth: Ideas to promote growing the population, economy, jobs, businesses, and housing.
It must be in best interest of most Ross County residents. We won’t succeed all the time, so we must be bold enough to serve the majority and do what’s right for economy.
Sustainability: Projects must survive past the initial thrust of funding and have a shelf life long enough to be worth it.
Regional scale: As a member of the county commissioners of Ohio, Everson said he is astounded by their camaraderie and willingness to work together – because they know that if one of us lands a business or gets a recreational attraction, we all benefit.
Be bold and be sure: If you want to be great, do great things – but be sure to not flop and cause damage.
To get approval, projects need specific goals, a return on investment, and metrics. Projects should also be repeatable and reproducible so they can be used as templates.
“What will our future look like? I don’t know. But we need to dare big and do big things and be optimistic as we write the next chapter of Chillicothe and Ross County,” Everson closed.
