Redeveloping Ohio's Core Cities

Enhancing the quality of life in Northeast Ohio's core cities is one of the key goals of Advance Northeast Ohio, and now a state commission has joined the call to do more to strengthen our urban areas.

The Ohio Cities Task Force, a 29-member group representing Ohio leaders from a variety of sectors, announced a blueprint for redevelopment and smart growth in Ohio yesterday. Included in the task force’s recommendations were a number of policy and legislative initiatives that focus on strengthening Ohio’s urban centers. Specific recommendations were split among the following categories: land use; development; transportation; workforce and quality of life; and regionalism.

Here is a key conclusion of the report (which I haven't been able to find online):

“Future prosperity in this state hinges upon sharing municipal services, coordinating economic and transportation construction, and maximizing investments by directing them to locations in a region where they will leverage the highest payoff. These goals require difficult discussion at the local level about land use, revenue sharing, and voluntary consolidation of programs and services. . . Ohio has a strong tradition of home rule, and the state is currently limited in the amount of financial incentives it can offer to encourage a regional approach.”

That conclusion echoes the efforts of the Regional Prosperity Initiative to bring infrastructure planning and revenue sharing to Northeast Ohio and the goals of EfficientGovNow, a program that encourages greater government collaboration.

You can read the news release on the commission here.