Five years after the city of Athens adopted the 2040 Comprehensive Plan, the city’s long-term list of priorities is due for its first formal review.
“(The review) involves City Council convening a comprehensive plan advisory board or commission,” City Council President Micah McCarey said.
The review comes amid significant changes in the city’s needs, as well as growing interest in issues not originally addressed in the plan.
“We've had huge shifts in our economy that have changed how much things cost,” McCarey said. “We continue to have a lot of infrastructure needs and cybersecurity needs, and we've dealt with a pandemic.”
The Athens 2040 Comprehensive Plan outlines goals city leaders aim to achieve across a wide range of areas.
“It's comprehensive, so it's quite broad,” McCarey said. “That means it includes chapters on each of our neighborhoods within the city, as well as efforts related to sustainability in the environment, public transportation, diversity and inclusion and even topics like history, arts and culture. The plan covers a wide variety of improvements the city intends to make, from housing to economics to infrastructure.”
The plan was developed with extensive community input.
“The Athens 2040 Comprehensive Plan is a collection of survey input and focus group reflections that led to recommended priorities for the city to pursue and to try and achieve by the year 2040,” McCarey said.
One of the most pressing challenges outlined in the plan is the shortage of housing in Athens. City Council is looking to address the issue in part through Ohio University’s development of portions of The Ridges into residential space.
“The big chunk of The Ridges property has to be split up and given to different groups in order for it to move forward and develop on its own,” City Planner Meghan Jennings said.
The division of land is currently moving through state approvals, with the city waiting on the state to sign off on final paperwork before beginning to invest money in the site.
Infrastructure improvements are also a key component of the plan. One provision calls for returning certain Uptown streets to two-way traffic for the first time in decades, reducing travel times and improving access for businesses.
“We have talked about and made plans for doing two-way traffic on Union Street in between Court and Congress,” Jennings said.
A shared-use bike path along Columbus Road is also planned.
“We have a current bike path spur that goes up near Devil's Kettle Brewing, and so we are looking to extend that down Columbus Road toward the hospital,” Jennings said.
In addition, the plan includes a detailed, neighborhood-by-neighborhood list of proposed improvements, shaped by resident input on infrastructure, safety and overall quality of life.
“There are even focus groups that were recorded and are on YouTube for how some of the goals implied by the plan were conceived,” McCarey said.
Diversity and inclusion are also emphasized throughout the plan, with goals such as making sidewalks ADA-compliant, providing inclusivity training for city employees and organizing sober community events for residents who do not drink.
“One thing that's happened since the plan was established has been a lot of involvement with council members and members of the mayor's administration receiving training on how to think about racial equity in policy development and to promote resources that kind of help people thrive in the Athens community, regardless of their background,” McCarey said.
While mental health services are not currently a core component of the plan, they are among the areas city leaders may consider adding during the update process.
“A lot of things relate to public health, but when it comes to topics like what the city does to support or promote resources that support the mental health of our citizens, that's been something that has been pointed out as missing from the plan,” McCarey said.
McCarey said the update process is an important opportunity for residents to help shape Athens’ future.
“Taking the time to think about where we as a city want to be 15 to 20 years from the time the plan was really conceived is really important because we continue to face unexpected challenges and changes in the environment we're operating in, and we truly need the public to inform the city's governmental leadership of what they think our priorities should be,” McCarey said.
