Introduction | Summary | Master Plan Document | Annual Reports | Implementation Strategies
2004 Master Plan Annual Report
Introduction
2004 Annual Report | Land Use | Economy | Community Appearance | Community Facilities & Services | Housing | Transportation | Implementation
Click here to view/download a pdf version of the Introduction.
Upper Arlington’s new Master Plan was adopted March 26, 2001, following three years of planning and participation from numerous community members.
Landlocked and fully developed, less than five percent of the City’s land use is dedicated to commercial activities and, of this, only 1.1 percent is in office use. Local income tax is a key revenue source and, as such, infrastructure maintenance and City service demands are outpacing the City’s funding capacity. Wishing to address these issues, Upper Arlington City Council initiated an update to the City’s 1962 Master Plan.
Eight goals helped direct development of the new Master Plan:
- Land Use – Recognize the City’s residential nature while enhancing redevelopment and revitalization.
- Economy – Place emphasis on creating a stronger, more diverse economy.
- Community Appearance – Preserve and enhance neighborhoods, natural surroundings and architectural amenities.
- Community Facilities – Maintain/expand community facilities for recreational, social and cultural opportunities.
- Community Services – Provide high-quality, cost-effective community services.
- Housing – Facilitate provision of a range of well-built housing to accommodate all ages.
- Transportation – Provide a comprehensive, safe and convenient network.
- Implementation – Emphasize accountability, fiscal soundness, monitoring and appropriate regulations, while fostering citizen and business involvement.
From these goals, 184 specific strategies for implementation were developed falling within four key actions the City must undertake to realize the overall goals of the Plan:
- Undertake redevelopment using the Study Areas as the framework – Several key areas are identified for potential redevelopment to create a mix of office, retail, residential, and civic use. These areas are: Kingsdale Shopping Center; Tremont Center; Henderson Road corridor; Lane Avenue corridor; Northwest Boulevard (south of Zollinger); the Mallway; and commercial areas along SR 33.
- Create land use tools – Develop tools to enhance and protect the City’s character while giving guidance and control for redevelopment. Update the City’s Planning and Zoning Code and create a series of development standards and guidelines to permit and encourage mixed-use development.
- Provide incentives to encourage desirable change – To stay competitive in the region and attract desirable development, consider a combination of economic and zoning incentives.
- Improve the City’s fiscal capacity – To ensure the community has adequate, stable funding, redevelopment strategies should encourage intensified land use in existing commercial areas and emphasize office development to generate new revenues.
Methodology in Preparation for the
2004 Master Plan Annual Report
As Staff began preparations for the 2004 Master Plan Annual Report, it was felt now was an appropriate time to take a slightly different approach. In the previous two years of reporting, the lead divisions/departments had been responsible for preparing updates for each assigned strategy, with no real opportunity for a group discussion on overall progress. Staff wanted to re-energize the review process and re-involve more internal stakeholders.
It was decided to hold team meetings for each of the primary sections: Land Use; Economy; Community Appearance; Community Facilities & Services; Housing; and Transportation. A representative from each division/department that played a role within each section, no matter how small, was required to attend.
A team leader was assigned to each meeting, charged with framing the discussions around the following themes:
- Review/discuss the overriding goal and subsequent objectives.
- Status – how successful have we been implementing the goal’s objectives/strategies?
- What is outstanding? Why?
- Is there anything missing that should be part of this section or considered as part of the Master Plan update process?
- Identify any issues/roadblocks that have been or continue to be encountered with this goal.
- What are Staff’s recommendations for addressing these issues? This could include:
- Requires further community consideration
- Requires clarification/direction from City Council
- On hold until appropriate opportunity presents itself
Upon completion of the team meetings, reports were crafted to summarize the discussion. These reports were shared with participants for any additional feedback. A final group meeting was scheduled with all participating Staff members to identify key findings and recommendations that emerged from each group.
This process proved invaluable on several levels. It brought together different members of Staff who typically do not work together, providing an opportunity for each to gain a greater understanding and appreciation of the City organization as a whole and the contributions of each division. The groups engaged in active dialogue, bringing forward many new and creative ideas for enhancing existing activities or for creating new approaches to achieving specific strategies. Contributors left these meetings with a renewed sense of purpose and attachment to the Master Plan document and its intent.
Key Highlights
The City can be proud of how much has been achieved to realize Master Plan goals for the good of the community. Much of the framework is in place to direct opportunities for change and development in keeping with and supportive of Upper Arlington’s long term health and success.
Following on from the early years’ activities, the City is now moving into the long-term implementation phase. Several key factors play an important role in how and when many pending objectives and strategies can be moved forward.
Funding Issues
Across all sections of the Master Plan, funding emerged as a challenge. Key areas include:
- Future funding needs to support the Capital Improvements Program, which funds the City’s surface and underground infrastructure projects. While the City has been successful in expanding this program, the community-wide need is significant in comparison to the existing identified resources. This concern will be among the topics reviewed by the Council Finance Subcommittee, when it reconvenes early 2006.
- Available resources to support economic development incentives. The City is not in a position to provide financial incentives to support redevelopment in all the commercial districts. It is recommended that the City revisit existing qualification guidelines and expand them to include some process for prioritizing project incentives.
- The necessary staffing and financial resources to support the implementation of new or expansion of existing programs and projects, such as: upgrading, maintaining or adding new public facilities; expanding the community’s bike lane and sidewalk systems; beautification efforts; expanding property maintenance efforts. In the coming year, Staff intends to further study these and other areas of concern and anticipates bringing certain items forward to City Council for direction on how to proceed.
Facilitating Change Versus Instigating Change
With the updated Zoning Map and related development approval processes in place through the Unified Development Ordinance, key Master Plan goals for the City’s commercial districts are now dependent upon the private sector and market forces initiating change.
Recent projects brought forward by commercial property owners indicate a desire to keep their sites viable, but typically through lower cost aesthetic improvements versus substantial change.
City leadership and Staff will continue efforts to encourage and facilitate discussions that will hopefully bring together a complementary mix of interested parties (property owners, businesses, developers, etc.) at an opportune time in order for redevelopment to occur.
Recommendations of the Transportation Plan
Since completion of the Transportation Plan update in 2002, the overall recommendations contained within it have proven a challenge to set in motion, primarily a result of associated overall costs and some uncertainty regarding the value and need for significant change.
Some recent, low cost experiments in traffic calming techniques undertaken in 2004 have met with success, indicating a phasing in of recommended changes might be the best way to proceed. Staff will be looking for additional discussion and direction from City Council on a number of Transportation Plan related issues in the coming year.
Master Plan Interpretation
By its nature, the Master Plan is a document subject to interpretation. It provides guiding principles and long-term aspirations for the community, but was intentionally created in a way that allows for its evolution over time.
Within the document, primary directives have the potential to work at odds with each other. For example, the Master Plan directs us to preserve and enhance our residential nature however, securing the necessary funding that allows us to do this requires expanded economic development activity which, in turn can be perceived as an area that could change the community’s character.
As a built-out community, a trend is emerging whereby development or redevelopment projects brought forward by the private sector are causing extensive community discussion, present challenges in Master Plan interpretation, and can result in recommendations and decisions that appear contradictory as they proceed through the development approval process.
Our community leaders are challenged to find balance within the Master Plan, to weigh the wishes of some neighborhoods with the overall effect any given project may have for the community as a whole.
An April 2005 retreat of City Council, Staff, the Board of Zoning & Planning and the Community Improvement Corporation will begin to address some of these items, taking a big picture look at the roles of each entity, and how to best facilitate leadership’s and the community’s discussions of such issues.
Next Steps
Following presentation of the 2004 Master Plan Annual Report to City Council and the community, steps will continue to move many items identified in the Report forward.
Each section of this Report contains some recommended amendments to the list of objectives and strategies. These include minor language changes to assist in accurate interpretation, some streamlining of duplicate strategies, and some proposed additions. These changes do not represent a shift in overall Master Plan goals and objectives, but are suggested as a means to provide Staff with a clearer set of strategies with which to work and to enhance the City’s implementation of these goals.
Pending approval from City Council to proceed with the recommended amendments, a revised set of strategy tables will be produced to serve as the new working directives for Staff in the coming months.
Taking a longer-term look ahead, preparations for framing the 10-year Master Plan update process are already being considered, with anticipation of a formal launch in 2008. The role of residents who were members of the Community Vision Partnership that helped craft our current Plan, and the involvement of other citizen stakeholders will again be vital to the process.
Conclusion
The discussions arising from Master Plan implementation efforts are a sign of a healthy community at work. Oftentimes, the process of informing citizens is a long-term proposition, and the Master Plan presents a complex set of directives that must be considered as a whole to understand where it’s leading the community. Residents are becoming more aware of the Master Plan and its intent as we continue its implementation over time.
Most agree with the primary directives of preserving and enhancing the community’s overall quality of life while assuring fiscal stability over the long term, and headway is being made toward those ends. However, there is no “one size fits all” solution to how pockets of our community can and should evolve – with careful consideration and community discussion necessary as specific redevelopment projects are brought forward.
Upper Arlington is fully developed and aging – today’s reality is finding ways to revive and reinvest in what we already have. Just as homeowners are modernizing their older homes to meet today’s living standards while preserving architectural integrity, Upper Arlington must modernize the community to meet today’s quality of life and services standards, while preserving the unique fabric that has been created over the course of many decades.
Our Master Plan gives us a long-term vision to head toward, as well as many of the tools to take us successfully on that journey. Achievements to date indicate this vision is the right one for Upper Arlington. In a few short years, we have been able to lay the foundation to fulfilling our long-term goals and much more. We look forward to working with the community to continue this effort in the coming months and years.
NOTE: - A draft copy of the 2004 Master Plan Annual Report was presented to City Council for discussion at its May 2, 2005 Council Conference Session. At that time, City Council indicated its satisfaction with the recommended implementation strategy amendments recommended by Staff (as shown by the Bold/Italics updates in the strategy tables contained within this report). A revised set of strategy tables will now be used by Staff to aid in Master Plan implementation efforts in the coming months. These tables can be found by clicking here.
Items identified by Staff as new ideas or enhancements to strategy implementation in 2005 and beyond, and outstanding issues that require additional review and direction by City Council are to be compiled in a summary “action” document. This document will be shared with City Council for members to review and suggest additional areas that require discussion and action in the short term.
City Manager's Office
City of Upper Arlington
3600 Tremont Road
Upper Arlington, OH 43221
Phone: 614-583-5040
Fax: 614-457-6620
www.ua-ohio.net
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