CITY OF CHILLICOTHE
Comprehensive Plan
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan is a document that represents a community’s vision over a 20-year horizon. This vision is based on the extensive collaboration and community engagement between residents, elected officials, and stakeholders. To assist the development of community priorities, a wide range of topics are discussed, such as housing, transportation, infrastructure, and economic development. To account for anticipated community growth, the scope of a comprehensive plan expands the municipal boundary by 1.5 miles. By being proactive and setting goals for the land within the 1.5-mile boundary, communities have a legal standing on development that currently isn’t in their jurisdiction.
Components of a Comprehensive Plan
A comprehensive plan is developed to answer three questions:
What are we as a community?
What would we like to be as a community?
How do we get there?
The first component of a comprehensive plan is taking inventory of the existing conditions of the community. During this phase of the plan, Tri-County Regional Planning Commission gathers extensive data to understand community trends and build a community profile.
Once the community’s current conditions are understood, a vision is created. This vision represents Chillicothe’s goals and the type of community it wants to be. This vision is created through extensive community engagement and public input.
The final step is to create an action plan. This final component creates actionable items that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the vision.
Roles and Partners
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission
Chillicothe
Steering Committee
Community
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission facilitates the planning process, leads steering committee meetings, gathers and analyzes data, and supports the community organizing efforts of the steering committee by coordinating engagement events, like workshops and open houses.
The City of Chillicothe plays a crucial role in the comprehensive planning process. Chillicothe’s role is to provide support and feedback on implementation strategies and ensure the plan is realized after adoption.
The Steering Committee is comprised of volunteers who act as liaisons between TCRPC and Chillicothe. From teachers, business owners, and community leaders, the varying roles that members fill make them uniquely positioned to provide integral information about community needs and desires.
Members of the community are comprised of residents, employees, and stakeholders of Chillicothe. The role of the community throughout the planning process is to provide feedback that informs the priorities and goals of the comprehensive plan.
Steering Committee Members
Amanda Beadles
Jim Benisch
Patricia Westerman-Connor
Jeremy Cooper
Shaun Grant
Mike Ratcliff
Andrew Ruhland
Don White
Lynne A. Wright
Kevin Yates
Mayor Michael Hughes
Planning Process Timeline
1)Develop a Community Profile
2) Perform Community Engagement
3)Establish a Community Vision
4) Produce a Plan
5) Faciliate a Public Comment Period
6) Adopt the Plan
Community Engagement
Community engagement is an essential component of the planning process. When community engagement is done effectively, it empowers community members to enact change within their community. Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, in collaboration with the steering committee and the City of Chillicothe, will maintain inclusivity to ensure the creation of an impactful plan. The engagement plan will provide multiple opportunities for the public to provide input. Additionally, the engagement plan will consist of robust methods to reduce barriers to participation.
The following are different components of the engagement plan:
Survey
To better understand community needs and public opinion, Tri-County Regional Planning Commission will publish a survey for Chillicothe community members. The survey will be administered until the end of August. The survey covers topics, such as housing stock, recreational amenities, and economic development preferences. Survey distribution methods will include online and in-person channels, such as community Facebook groups, paper surveys, and QR codes. The survey was also distributed at community pop-up events.
The survey can be taken here.
Open House
On July 25th, Tri-County Regional Planning Commission and the steering committee will hold an open house at the Chillicothe Public Library from 5 PM to 7 PM. This event is meant to help understand what changes the public wants to see for Chillicothe. The open house has several interactive stations designed to help community members evaluate community assets and identify priorities for Chillicothe. Each station will be managed by either Tri-County staff or a steering committee member. This setup helps provide participants with assistance if they need help performing the exercise or face time with an individual developing the plan to provide context to their answer. As an extra incentive to attract participants snacks will be provided.
Stakeholder Interview
Stakeholder interviews will be conducted to assess the current conditions of Chillicothe. TCRPC consulted with the steering committee to create a list of people who could speak to the city’s institutional capacity and key services. The final list consisted of individuals in police, fire, education, social services, public works, sanitary districts, manufacturers, and developers.
Interviews will last 45 minutes to an hour. The questions that will be asked during the interviews are designed to gain context to community data and gain further knowledge on organizational needs.
Pop-up Events
Successful engagement plans meet people where they are, offering outreach and participation options at festivals and events already happening within the community.
Steering committee members identified the Corn Boil as an event they would to attend promote the comprehensive plan process. At this event they will encourage their neighbors to take the survey and engage in conversations about why comprehensive planning is valuable for the community and how it offers opportunities for resident participation.