Master Plan? Master Disaster....
Printed From: MiddletownUSA.com
Category: Middletown City Government
Forum Name: Economic Development
Forum Description: Local government efforts to develop the local Middletown area economy.
URL: http://www.middletownusa.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6565
Printed Date: Apr 25 2024 at 9:49am
Topic: Master Plan? Master Disaster....
Posted By: buddhalite
Subject: Master Plan? Master Disaster....
Date Posted: Oct 08 2017 at 9:17pm
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Just read in the online edition of the Urinal News that we're paying some consultant another chunk of change to develop a master plan.
Wait. What? Yes, folks, even after re-reading this article - it seems our cray cray friends at One Downton Albatross have decided that we need to update our ridiculously failed plan with a new one - from a consultant - after admittedly working with some pretty smart folks. I'm confused.
Why? Why on earth does a city with the depth and breadth of intelligence within our borders need to look to OUTSIDERS to create a plan?
Never mind....we already know why. Just ensuring the continuing failure of our city to thrive for another 10 years.
Here's an idea - and I'll be the first volunteer - quit this nonsense and let the people decide. We've got the breadth of intelligence, the understanding of the issues surrounding the community and are truly dedicated to the growth and development of the ENTIRE city.......we're not just going to kowtow to downtown and a limited assortment of bars, liquor, distilleries and leather and soap shops.
I volunteer to head the effort Doug - you just have to be willing to allow it to happen. This city won't turn around until the people want it turn around (regardless of our leadership picking and choosing winners and losers) and the people must have some stake in it if there's any chance of it being successful.
And none of us would make all the prime real estate in this city residential. That decision alone has sealed the fate of this community. And it was ill-advised from the start ....
Argh. I don't really know why I even bother posting...but it feels good to get it off my chest.
Bob
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"Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions." -Ludwig van Mises
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Replies:
Posted By: swohio75
Date Posted: Oct 09 2017 at 8:31am
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Master Plans are usually updated every 5-10 years. The city hasn't had an updated plan since the early 2000s (2005 I l think).
Master Plans take a look at land use, zoning, population patterns, neighborhoods, traffic patterns, transportation/ and infrastructure, and economic development. It does take a look at the ENTIRE city.
Yes, in the past, the city had enough internal resources to do a Master Plan (see 1964 Plan). But with downsizing, it's likely it needs to be outsourced.
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Posted By: Analytical
Date Posted: Oct 09 2017 at 2:08pm
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Note: the following Middletown Journal news article provides the focus of five city-funded consultant studies being conducted.
New course for Middletown's downtown considered
- Mike Rutledge
Staff Writer
4:34 p.m Thursday, Feb. 18, 2016 http://www.journal-news.com/community" rel="nofollow - Community News
Five Middletown Studies Here are five studies being conducted in Middletown, and the focus of each: - Middletown Master Plan — Conducted by McBride Dale Clarion — an overarching plan for the
- entire city of Middletown that will tie together all the other related city plans. It will consider future land-
- use possibilities, identify key topics that should make up the city’s “planning agenda,” and evaluate
- priority development sites.
- Community Visioning — Handled by Middletown Moving Forward Inc. and the Community
- Building Institute — will identify neighborhood and economic issues, create a vision statement
- that “clearly defines Middletown’s desired future,” and recommend solutions and strategies to
- achieve them.
- Downtown Master Plan — A project of Downtown Middletown Inc. and a consultant to be
- named next week — unlike the Middletown Master Plan, this plan will focus on downtown and
- how it connects with other parts of the city. It will evaluate existing conditions, recommend a
- comprehensive streetscape design and preferred architectural styles for the downtown, suggest
- future land-use patterns, evaluate market demands for the downtown, offer information about
- prime sites for developments that development companies can use, and suggest funding
- strategies to achieve the plan’s aims.
- Housing Study — Handled by Danter Group — a comprehensive housing study for the entire
- city that City Manager Doug Adkins has said he hopes “will tell us what kind of housing we need
- in Middletown, to start balancing our housing stock and get our property values up.” It will
- evaluate demand for housing in the city at various price points, evaluate housing trends and
- growth projections, and will give special consideration to studying housing in the downtown.
- Bicycle/Pedestrian Plan — Will evaluate existing conditions, analyze where new bike-
- pedestrian connections should be made, prioritize the potential projects, and determine the
- types of paths that should be built, and what amenities the paths should have.
The people creating the five plans “are all working together — all these plans, and all these consultants,” says Mallory Greenham, executive director of Downtown Middletown Inc. “We’re not duplicating efforts, but it’s real easy to get confused (about why there are so many plans)…. They just happen to be happening at the same time.” Source: City of Middletown and Journal-News research What course should be charted for Middletown’s downtown? Should it be branded as an arts area? A historic downtown? Maybe both, but in different parts of the downtown? Or perhaps something else? That will be a main focus of a downtown master plan that Downtown Middletown Inc. is poised to launch in coming weeks. The organization next week will announce which consulting firm it will hire to formulate the plan. “There will be a lot of public feedback,” promises Downtown Middletown Inc. Executive Director Mallory Greenham. A lot of feedback already has been collected through the “What If Middletown?” visioning process now underway, which is evaluating community sentiment for how the entire city should move forward, Greenham notes. But the public input sought for the downtown master plan “will be much more specific, direct questions about downtown Middletown: Do you see it as a historic downtown? Do you see it as an arts-district downtown? Do you see it more urban? Do you not even care about the historic architecture?” “Those are the things that we want to find out from the public,” Greenham said. |
Posted By: spiderjohn
Date Posted: Oct 09 2017 at 3:58pm
A paid consultant to create our next master plan?
What does this REALLY mean??
That our Council, city manager, staff and citizens are incapable of charting their own future? Do we have to hire another outside firm to plan our future direction? If so--why are these people in office and employed by the citizens? What are DMI, MMF, CBI, Council and Admin doing with their time and funding?
This is crazy---Council and Admin need to explain why this is necessary. Then again--they don't explain much of anything any more. They discuss and decide in private, then vote unanimously in public. Then they wonder why more citizens feel detached and left out.
We need to do our duty come election day!
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Posted By: buddhalite
Date Posted: Oct 09 2017 at 4:05pm
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Well said Spider,
It's time that this council realizes we don't elect them to be Adkins' own mutual admiration society.
Bob
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"Every government intervention [in the marketplace] creates unintended consequences, which lead to calls for further government interventions." -Ludwig van Mises
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Posted By: VietVet
Date Posted: Oct 10 2017 at 9:31am
Buddha:
"Wait. What? Yes, folks, even after re-reading this article - it seems our cray cray friends at One Downton Albatross have decided that we need to update our ridiculously failed plan with a new one - from a consultant - after admittedly working with some pretty smart folks. I'm confused"
You know Buddha, I can remember when you first started posting on this forum, you took the stand of defending the city leaders against our attacks and even suggested back then that we need to approach the city leaders in a more understanding way with much less criticism. One can review your earlier posts to make the comparison.
Now, in less than a year, it would appear that you are falling into the old "negative abyss" that the city supporters are constantly reminding the rest of us we have fallen into.
It just goes to show that if you read over time, a continual pattern of decisions and information that omits citizen participation, the constant flow of non-logical directions, exclusion for most living here, and the catering of certain groups and individuals in this city, you tend to go negative.
You are just now arriving at where us long timers have been for decades as to tolerance level with city leadership and the direction of this city. There are a few older citizens (like Larry Mulligan) who should know better, but, for some unknown reason, keep supporting the current agenda and those who have ruined this town.
It remains a mystery to me how those who have lived here through the 50's and 60's can be happy with the current condition of the city and with those who have taken us there. It has been a steady decline with no upticks as to progress in the last four plus decades. You can say the same thing about the schools as well. Numbers don't lie.
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I'm so proud of my hometown and what it has become. Recall 'em all. Let's start over.
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