These successes were spelled out in its 2010 Annual Report (PDF), released on Wednesday.
Last year, HCRPC and the Planning Partnership engaged in:
- The Sustainable Hamilton County: Reinventing Our Communities workshop series, a free, four-part series on sustainability in the built environment, community finances, and emerging trends;
- The 2010 American Planning Association – Ohio World Town Planning Day in Amberley Village, a planning charrette that resulted in website improvements, existing conditions reports and maps, recommendations on three potential development sites in the village, and ideas to increase connectivity;
- The Woodlawn Housing Plan, part of the First Suburbs Housing Plan, which identified current and future housing needs in the village – including workforce housing;
- A Land use plan update for Green Township, guiding future development and redevelopment;
- CAGIS support, such as map updates and analysis, census analysis and reports, and database design and management;
- 2010 Complete Count census preparation, targeting tracts with low 2000 Census mail-in rates, adding new census designated places, and ensuring jurisdictions for accuracy;
- Creation of a Transportation Policy Plan, a comprehensive policy statement on transportation for the county and its departments;
- The Unified Building Permit Application Project, the conversion of 35 separate permit forms into a single document that can be used by all permitting authorities and the addition of a web portal, which will be launched this year;
- Legislative work by the First Suburbs Consortium of Ohio;
- Communities of the Future and Project Groundwork, a multi-billion initiative requiring the Metropolitan Sewer District of Greater Cincinnati to address combined sewer overflow problems and to engage in watershed planning;
- Energy efficiency and conservation programs, including the Energy Performance Contract project, Greater Cincinnati Energy Alliance energy retrofits, recommendations for energy improvements to county building and zoning regulations, and a workforce development program for minorities and women to be trained as energy auditors;
- The Hamilton County Land Bank, currently under study as a result of the passage of Ohio House Bill 313;
- Five Trainings for Planning and Zoning Commissioners, designed to review and reinforce basic principles of planning, zoning, legal and ethical issues, meeting management, and site plan review skills;
- Communications and outreach through newsletters, reports, website, and e-mail, in addition to frequent surveys and evaluations;
- An Annual Meeting, held in April and featuring Scott Bernstein of the Center for Neighborhood Technology as keynote speaker;
- The Frank F. Ferris II Planning Award, awarded jointly to Price Hill Will for its Glenway Market Study and Redevelopment Plan and to the City of Springdale for its Tri-County Retail District Plan; and
- Melvin D. Martin Day on April 19, honoring 28 years of service to the HCRPC by the Madeira resident.
An alliance of local planning commissions and governments served by a seven-member board, HCRPC seeks to assist Hamilton County and its communities, agencies and citizens in planning and achieving sustainable development, to build partnerships that promote regionalism, to provide data management and analysis for effective planning decision-making, and to promote an equitable balance of local, county and regional perspectives and interests in community planning forums.
It provides advisory planning and development review services to the county's 12 townships and, upon request, to the 24 municipalities that pay annual dues.
The Planning Partnership is a collaborative initiative of the HCRPC composed of an advisory board that provides longer-range, comprehensive planning approaches.
Previous reading on BC:
Greenhills wins county planning award (3/16/11)
Registration open for finale of Hamilton Co sustainability series (3/1/11)
Nominations for Hamilton Co planning award due next Monday (2/21/11)
Hamilton County sustainability series continues Friday (1/18/11)
New Mercy Hospital rezoning hearing today (8/6/09)
