City Planning and Engagement

Plan Cincinnati was designed to represent the voice of the people of Cincinnati and guide the future of our city.  After three years, hundreds of meetings, thousands of conversations, and countless ideas bandied back and forth by community members, business people, city leaders, students from elementary school to college, and property owners, we found that Cincinnatians had a lot to say. And everyone said they loved their city, but no one said they wanted it to never change.

Plan Cincinnati is the opportunity to strengthen what we love about this city, what works, and what needs more attention to be truly great.  We can also set a course for making improvements, stimulating new ideas, and changing old processes that no longer work in a modern environment. Plan Cincinnati is that guide. It redefines our city and what it means to be a thriving urban city.

Plan Cincinnati describes our shared values of living in a thriving urban city and defines how it is operationalized in both a physical and a policy framework. It refocuses on the human scale with a conceptual framework that guides future development building on our historic building patterns. Cincinnati is already developed and the bulk of the infrastructure for a thriving urban city is already here. Because we are a city with “good bones,” we don’t need to create a new Cincinnati, we just need to reinvigorate it in order to become the modern city we want to be.

Plan Cincinnati, at its core, is a chance for Cincinnatians to dream about what the future might hold. In our shared efforts to implement Plan Cincinnati, we can indeed be that model of a thriving urban city. The vision for the future of Cincinnati is focused on an unapologetic drive to create and sustain a thriving inclusive urban community, where engaged people and memorable places are paramount, where creativity and innovation thrive, and where local pride and confidence are contagious.

Public Process

Plan Cincinnati was designed to be community-based, with the plan essentially being guided and written by the Cincinnati community. Throughout the 3-yearlong development of Plan Cincinnati, there was unprecedented public participation through direct engagement of thousands of Cincinnati stakeholders. The Plan successfully involved stakeholders of various ages, backgrounds, geographies, and levels of desired involvement. The result of this extensive participation was a Plan built on partnerships.

Oversight was provided by a Steering Committee of approximately 40 people appointed by Mayor Mark Mallory representing community organizations, businesses, non-profits, and institutions. Much of the work developing the goals and actions steps of the Plan was provided by 12 Working Groups with up to 30 members each.

There were three separate day-long Neighborhood Summits (held annually in 2010, 2011, and 2012) that attracted approximately 600 people each year, two Public Open Houses targeting community leadership that drew 200 participants each, and numerous visits to local organizations including churches and neighborhood groups. Our program “Planting the Future” successfully engaged over 600 Cincinnati youth from kindergarten to 12th grade through the use of art therapy. To reach young adults aged 18-30, the University of Cincinnati School of Planning taught a special course entitled “Engaging the Future” where sixteen students engaged eight youth stakeholder groups in assessing the needs and desires of Cincinnati’s young adults.

Guiding Principles

During the course of the public participation process of Plan Cincinnati, a series of themes arose as the "big ideas" of the plan. These big ideas became the overall principles guiding the goals, strategies, action steps, and their detailed tasks that are the policies set forth in this plan.

 

Geographic Principles

There are four overall geographic principles that guide Plan Cincinnati and the implementation of its strategies. The four principles are designed to strategically guide the location of future investment and growth.

• Focus revitalization on existing centers of activity

• Link centers of activity with effective transportation for maximum accessibility

• Create new centers of activity where appropriate

• Maximize industrial reinvestment in existing industrial areas.

Plan Cincinnati has embraced an innovative approach by viewing the city as "centers of activity" instead of classifying them based on the traditional land use categories. It promotes a planning strategy that makes the city more walkable and vibrant while addressing the present day issues.