THE PROCESS & PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT

The City of Hamilton has long understood the benefits of planning and thinking about long-term visions and goals. The city has undertaken comprehensive planning efforts since the early 1900s with the last major effort taking place in 2008 with an adopted update of Vision 2020 Smart Growth/Sustainable Hamilton!, which was originally adopted in 2001. Since then, the City has also developed a number of neighborhood-based plans or topical plans that were focused on key issues including, but not limited to, the Hamilton Neighborhood Initiative (2005), the Main Street Business District Master Plan (2007), the South Hamilton Crossing Economic Impact Analysis (2011), Sustainable Hamilton (2017), and the River Master Plan (2018). All of these efforts were important and allowed the city to address important issues but in 2017, City leaders determined that it was time to develop a new comprehensive plan that recognized all of the previous planning efforts as well as the many positive changes happening in Hamilton.

Policy Committee

The Policy Committee was comprised of 23 community leaders, including the representatives from City Council, residents, business leaders, community organizations, Butler County, non-profit organizations, and community members who came together to provide input and general feedback on the broadest policy recommendations of the plan.

Focus Groups

The city initially identified nine different topics, reflected in the Plan Hamilton Policy Areas, that are traditionally key elements of a comprehensive plans and of which were important to the community. For each of these nine topics (ultimately refined to eight policy areas), the City established a focus group that consisted of residents, local experts, and regional experts who could speak to what the main issues are and opportunities for each of the topics. The City did a call for residents to apply to join these committees and got 62 applications. In total, 104 people participated in several meetings of each focus group that led to many of the policies and actions you will see in this plan.

Online Surveys

Throughout the process, the City and consulting team utilized online surveys as a way to gather additional feedback from people who might not have had an opportunity to attend the public meetings or open houses. These ranged from short Facebook polls that would take 30 seconds to respond to more robust surveys that gave very specific feedback to Plan Hamilton. Over the course of approximately one year, the city released 13 surveys that covered everything from what people liked the best about living in Hamilton to whether the draft policy recommendations covered the core needs of the community. There were over 3,500 responses to those surveys that helped refine the direction of the plan. In the fall of 2018, the city released nine surveys via Facebook that covered each of the nine policy areas. The responses to these Facebook surveys provided positive feedback on the direction of the plan and clearly demonstrated that the citizens see mobility, jobs and economic growth, and parks as key priorities in Hamilton.

Website

Prior to the development of the web-based plan format, www.PlanHamilton.com served as a project website that people could refer to in order to learn about upcoming meetings, participate in surveys, or download summary documents of the various planning activities.

Public Meetings & Workshops

At the start of the Plan Hamilton process (in July and August of 2017), approximately 250 people attended five different neighborhood meetings where residents had the opportunity to work in small groups to pinpoint the areas of Hamilton they cherished as well as areas where there are problems. Participants also were part of a round-robin discussion where they identified needed activities and improvements and then prioritized those activities as a group. The results of these meetings were presented at an open house where over 100 people came to learn about the top ideas that came out of the meetings as well as the places the participated valued or sought to change.

In August 2017, the City facilitated two special meetings regarding Grand Boulevard and Route 4 as part of the process to develop more detailed studies for each of these corridors. Approximately 40 people attended these two meetings to discuss priorities and opportunities along the corridors. This information was used as part of both the detailed analyses of the corridors as well as the specific recommendations outlined in the corridor plans.

In October 2017, the City facilitated a public workshop at the Fitton Center for the Performing Arts that combined the outreach efforts of Plan Hamilton with that of the River Master Plan. Over 50 participants took turns at four different planning stations where they were asked to take part in activities that revolved around four major planning topics including the Great Miami River, land use and development, parks, and walkability and public transportation. These discussions, along with the information gathered during the previous meetings led to some preliminary guiding principles for Plan Hamilton as well as conceptual recommendations for the major topics discussed at the workshop. This information was put on display at an open house held at Miami University Hamilton Downtown during the 2017 Operation Pumpkin, Hamilton’s largest community festival, in an effort to reach people who may not otherwise have heard about Plan Hamilton. 100 people provided input at the open house during Operation Pumpkin.

It is thanks to all of the residents, business owners, community leaders and staff taking part in this planning effort that led to the policies and recommendations you see in Plan Hamilton today. Their participation allowed for the development of a plan that is tailored to the specific vision that citizens see when talking about the future of Hamilton!

How Public Engagement Shaped Plan Hamilton

It is thanks to all of the residents, business owners, community leaders, and staff taking part in this planning effort that led to the policies and recommendations you see in Plan Hamilton today. Their participation allowed for the development of a plan that is tailored to the specific vision that citizens see when talking about the future of Hamilton. Before the start of the Plan Hamilton process, City Council and staff knew that in order to truly have a successful comprehensive plan, the direction of that plan had to be set by the community itself. It was this overarching goal that meant that the process had to seek input on many different levels to identify opportunities, understand the impacts of different policies and actions, and gauge priorities. This meant that process needed to be able to establish points of consensus with the larger public but also seek out more nuanced input where stakeholder groups could provide more targeted input and ideas that may not be at the forefront of the average citizen’s mind, but could nevertheless provide significant benefits to Hamilton if implemented. 

Key Takeaways from Major Public Events

Early in the planning process, the City hosted multiple public meeting and online surveys to determine what residents and businesses saw as the major issues facing Hamilton as well as to have the public identify ideas for actions the City should take to improve the City. As part of those early public engagement forums, there were a number of takeaways that routinely rose to the top as priorities for the public and these ideas, highlighted below in no particular order, helped shape the policy areas of the plan as well as became the initial set of actions that you see incorporated directly into Plan Hamilton.

• Encourage a more diverse mix of commercial activities including restaurants and shopping across Hamilton.

• Work with property owners along Route 4 to improve the appearance of the corridor with public and private improvements.

• Expand development and recreational opportunities around the riverfront.

• Continue to work with the railroads to reduce train noises and conflicts with traffic flow.

• Maintain a high level of public safety service for both the business and residential communities. 

• Invest in road improvements in all the neighborhoods. 

• Recognize that tweens and teens are especially in need of activities.

• Develop strategies to address issues with absentee landlords and vacant or blighted buildings.

• Support the improvement of educational opportunities from preschool to graduate school.

• Establish better sidewalk and bike path connections within and between neighborhoods and regional trail systems.

Key Takeaways from Stakeholder Meetings

In addition to the larger public engagement forums such as meetings and surveys, the City met with the Policy Committee and Policy Focus Groups, which were comprised of over 100 residents, business leaders, and local/regional experts, all of whom had special experiences and expertise to bring to the plan that helped in the creation of additional recommendations. As an example, the Mobility Focus Group included residents interested in transportation issues and representatives from the City’s Engineering Division as well transportation leaders from Butler County, the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), and the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments (OKI).These recommendations, while not necessarily major topics of discussions at public meetings, are ideas that have shown to be beneficial to other communities with similar issues or are ones where local experts have demonstrated a specific need for certain improvements. For example, other communities that have strong neighborhoods such as Hamilton, have shown that capitalizing and planning around the unique qualities of neighborhoods have helped in strengthening neighborhood identity, a recommendation under the Residents, Housing, and Neighborhoods policy area. During discussions with the school district, it became evident that there are a lot of noteworthy successes happening in the school system but that sometimes, those positive successes are not being publicized in a way that could help market Hamilton as a community with a great educational system, leading to a recommendation to look at improved marketing strategies. While the takeaways highlighted below were not necessarily called out during major public events, they are ideas that have been incorporated because they further the idea of giving a voice to all of the community and contribute to the larger vision that was set out by the public.

• Increase homeownership rates through efforts like down payment assistance programs and targeted marketing.

• Encourage homeowners to invest in their homes through incentives like rehabilitation loans and facade grants.

• Collaborate with educational institutions and realtors on community marketing efforts.

• Work with organizations that make Hamilton a healthier, safer, cleaner, and more economically vibrant community for all people.

• Plan around the unique qualities of the individual neighborhoods.

• Promote new initiatives, such as programming for minority- and women-owned businesses.

• Value passive parkland, such as nature preserves, as much as our active park and recreational facilities

• Improve connectivity to I-75 and I-275.