02/25/2003 Minutes - Laserfiche WebLink

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$40,000 for a complete master plan review in 1992. He is doubtful that $60,000 would cover the current review. He mentioned the regional planning commission suggestion that our money might be better spent on a full-time person or at least a part-time person with some funding to use the regional planning cominission as a resource. It has yet to be seen how City Council will deal with that. He said he thinks that Council created some kind of position for planning but hadn't anticipated that it would be funded and created until 2004. There are a lot of different ways it can be approached but we are still waiting to see what City Council does with the request for funding. Mr. Koeth said the county cominissioners were very impressed that North Olmsted is actually going through its master plan. The county consultants brought up the issues of green space, the water shed, and the city being "elder ready". Mr. Koeth said another issue the board needs to address is the Crocker-Stearns extension. The county consultants also referenced something called "retro-fitting retail" which is a reorientation of the retail end of the community. Mr. Koeth said they will need to take a look at the retail and determine the real benefits since it is such a large part of the community. Mr. Spalding brought up the issue of traffic. Mr. Koeth said the Crocker-Stearns extension should help. He added that the regional people said the west end of the city should be looked at in terms of the master plan. He said with Crocker-Stearns coming in it could actually alienate the west end of North Olmsted. The board needs to consider the area from Stearns Road all the way out to the county line. Mrs. O'Rourke asked about the issue of isolating that end of town. Mr. Koeth said it may almost act as a dividing line because of the highway and it wouldn't necessarily pull people away but it could stop people from even coming in to town. People may go out to North Ridgeville to go shopping rather than come through here because of the traffic. Mr. Lasko said it would be the area west of Crocker- Stearns that is affected. People may be inore inclined to go to Midway Mall or more inclined to go shopping elsewhere because of traffic. Mr. Koeth pointed out the consultants said the city does not have to do a huge overhaul of the plan. Mrs. O'Rourke said they can use what they have as a base and 90% of it will stay pretty close to what it is now. Mr. O'Malley pointed out that Mr. O'Grady, the President of Council, is present and perhaps the board can take advantage of that. He said Mr. O'Grady was complimented by the regional planning commission because of his efforts on the Vision 2000 Committee and they were intrigued by that process. He believes it is a very similar process to what the board is setting up now. Mr. O'Grady concurred and said the issues being addressed by the board are exactly the kinds of things the committee spoke about. He said they need to determine what kind of changes they need to make to the coinmunity. He mentioned becoming a more pedestrian friendly community and said perhaps that can be designed into ouc future. He said they might consider more bikes paths, more walking paths. He said he wonders if the Crozker-Stearns extension will have a psychological affect on the people that live to the west of it. It might separate thein from the rest of the cominunity and he asked how they can mitigate that. Mr. Koeth said they would like to see any reports and recommendations that were made. Mr. Conway asked how the board would get copies of the reports. Mr. O'Grady replied that the Mayor has the different plans. There is a 75-year plan, 25-year, and the near term 5-year plan. Mr. O'Grady said he is very gratified with what he is hearing the board speak of because he thinks it is where they need to be directing the attention of the city. He said the city seems to be in very good hands. Mr. Koeth pointed out that the county planning commission uses the North Olmsted master plan as an example for other cities ?n the area that they assist. Mr. O'Malley said the county was very encouraged that the requirement to review the master plan is in our charter. Mr. Koeth mentioned GIS mapping, which is the Geographic Informational System that actually helps out with the master plan. The county has other types of maps that they can share with the board. Mr. Spalding asked if they have any aerial maps because they would be very helpful. Mr. O'Malley said the GIS maps are not aerial but they take census data and use it to show things like population trends on a map. Mr. Koeth said one of the keys they need to have is the census data. He added that he will give Mr. Spalding the contact information for Mr. Demuth, the project coordinator for the county, He can get the census data and they can proceed. Mr. Conway said the county people preparecl a tremenClOUS amount of data on the 2