MOUNT VERNON — Over 100 community members gathered at Tuesday’s comprehensive plan workshop to learn the key findings from the information-gathering phase of the plan update.
The Woodward Opera House hosted the Focus on the Future workshop, which featured panelists discussing growth, rural characteristics, and conditions for success.
Round 1 gathered information through community surveys, stakeholder and small-group meetings, and technical demographic analysis.
Jeff Gottke, president of the Knox County Area Development Foundation, told the audience that the comprehensive plan guides land use, development, and budgeting decisions.
“At its core, it’s about addressing a community’s opportunities and well-being for its residents,” he said.
Jamie Green of Planning NEXT, the consultant firm hired to facilitate the update, led the workshop.
“There is no other place to pull together all of the components that are important to residents,” he said of a comprehensive plan. “It’s not a regulatory tool, but it is the legal foundation for regulatory tools.”
Over 1,200 people participated in Round 1, highlighting 2,047 places, 4,450 treasures, and 4,109 outcomes.
“All of the data points have a ‘why’ behind them,” Green said.
Round 2 involves formulating the information into recommendations.
“The three inputs — the treasures, the outcomes, and the places — all have a place in making policy. The treasures will define what we think you believe are the vision and the values for the future of Knox County.
“We’re going to use the outcomes to draft goals and outcomes.”
Round 1 data
Green noted Knox County has a strong sense of community and family.
“That seems like a bedrock emotion that people should have about what they treasure. But I will tell you that none of these treasures are guaranteed,” he said. “There are things you can do from a public policy standpoint, or not do, that can fray these things.
“And that is fundamental to the community.”
Green said the county also has a notion about controlling development.
“We should unpack what that means in this process because you obviously need growth,” he said. “But how do you manage it? How do you manage to get the outcomes that you want? Those outcomes are important.”
Green said the findings show a recognition that it is more than just land use and development; infrastructure, along with farmland and agriculture, is also part of it.
“There’s a recognition here that although we love our towns and our small towns, we’ve actually had development patterns that are neither rural nor urban, and those have an impact on how you serve them,” he said. “They have an impact on pride and all those things.”
Green wanted the audience to appreciate that housing types and price points of housing availability determine who lives here.
“What you deliver, affordability — that determines who lives here,” he said. “And that then influences workforce availability: Who’s living here, who can work here, who can fill the jobs, and what kind of amenities does it take to do that?
“And ultimately, it shapes the revenue capacity and generation for the community. Fiscal health, your ability to pay for goods and services and take care of this community all have an interconnected relationship with other aspects of the community.”
Key highlights
Findings show the county and city populations are different: The county is growing, the city is not. The majority of residents are in the 60-plus age category, which factors into the workforce and job creation.
Additionally, the population is in transition. Several attendees expressed surprise that nearly half (43%) of the homeowners came to the county in 2010 or after.
Several other key findings emerged:
•Knox County faces increased growth pressure.
•The county is defined by its rural landscape, a landscape that is reshaping and eroding.
•There is abundant parkland and natural resources well above the National Parks Organization’s standard of 10 acres per 1,000 people.
•Residents are organized around city and village centers.
• Knox County residents fill most local jobs, but 35% leave to work elsewhere. Additionally, a large number come into the community. That affects infrastructure and quality of life.
•Residents’ jobs are heavily weighted toward white-collar industries.
“That doesn’t quite feel like who we thought we are, this agriculture notion,” Green said. “But the reality is this is what the data tells us.”
Referencing Knox County’s desire for a rural setting, Green showed the amount of land in residential use.
“It’s either rural residential or low-density suburban residential patterns happening throughout your county, and they’re mainly happening along roads and corridors,” he said.
“So if you think about what it means to be out on the road in the public realm and perceiving the landscape, it’s changing from a predominantly open farm into, in many places, a collection of smaller lots of housing.
“Now, all these things belong. But if we’re hearing you correctly about your care and affection for the the landscape, it’s changing on us.”
Panel discussion at the comprehensive plan workshop
The workshop included comments from three panelists involved with growth and preservation.
Kenny McDonald, president and CEO of One Columbus, noted that communities must find ways to maintain a good economy while changing with the times so children will stay in the community.
He said quality of life is the same as economic development: wanting enough to pay for ball fields, for example, but not wanting more than enough.
“I’m convinced that with better planning, you can achieve agriculture goals and maintain the character of your community yet still have enough economy to stay here and keep kids and grandkids here,” he said.
Small Nation founder Jason Duff touched on strengthening community centers, noting he thinks of centers as tribes. Conditions for success include being open to preservation and innovation.
“We need to story-tell and identify through history and innovation where you want to go with that story,” he said. “This comprehensive plan could be a big part of that.”
Kenyon Professor Howard Sacks defined rural character as including a dark night sky, green space punctuated with buildings that make up a family farm, and hard work.
It also includes social relationships, which Sacks illustrated with the example of farmers who knew the insides of neighbors’ kitchens as they worked together to harvest crops.
“History plays an important role; everybody has stories. These stories are profoundly important to helping define what is unique and distinctive about this community,” he said.
Sacks encouraged the community to tell those stories to welcome new people into the community.
The Together Knox website will soon have a video of the workshop. Residents can also click here to register their thoughts on the principles and goals collected from Round 1.
