Mission | History | Accomplishments | Staff

The Community Planning Program, formerly the Countryside Program, has been working since 1996 to promote sustainable urban, suburban, rural and exurban development patterns across Ohio. We work with local officials (trustees, zoning/planning commissions and boards, City/Village Councils); landowners; developers and the real estate community; designers and planners; and the general public. We partner with local community organizations; County Planning Commissions and Soil and Water Districts; conservation groups and land conservancies; development groups; State and Federal agencies to achieve a balanced approach

• We provide education through workshops, presentations, and individual discussion sessions.
• We provide technical assistance on a wide variety of planning, zoning, development, and conservation projects and processes.
• We conduct and participate in research that can contribute to better decisionmaking in our region.
• We act as a resource and clearinghouse for those in the State of Ohio who are working to achieve a balance of conservation and development.

Ohio Balanced Growth Program: Best Local Land Use Practices
The Ohio Balanced Growth Program was begun in 2006 by the Ohio Lake Erie Commission, in response recommendations of the Ohio Balanced Growth Task Force. Kirby Date manages the outreach component of the Program, known as Best Local Land Use Practices (BLLUP), which is now statewide under the Ohio Lake Erie Commission and the Ohio Water Resources Council. The BLLUP program provides education, technical assistance, and research support to networks of local governments in eight regions of the state, focused on implementation of Balanced Growth Policy at the local government level. For more information see the Ohio Balanced Growth web site.

Small Communities Planning Initiative
The Community Planning Program is working with Southington Township, Trumbull County, on their new Comprehensive Plan. The plan is innovative because it is being prepared by township citizens themselves, with mentoring from staff of the Community Planning Program. The group is working with the “Small Communities Planning Toolkit”, developed by the Community Planning Program in 2009. CSU GIS department is preparing maps and related data development. This project is enabling Southington Township to prepare a plan at significantly reduced cost, while expanding their community’s citizen and zoning commission capacity to make good planning decisions. If you are interested in pursuing this idea for your community, please contact Kirby Date at 216-687-5477.

Additional Projects
Staff of the Center for Community Planning and Development, and the Community Planning Program, are participating in the Northeast Ohio Sustainable Communities Regional Policy Plan, a collaborative planning project for a 12-county region of Northeast Ohio including five major cities, four Metropolitan Planning Areas, and numerous other groups and agencies. For more information, contact Kirby Date.

In 2009, the Community Planning Program completed a downtown district plan for the Village of Jefferson in Ashtabula County. The plan involved assessment of current conditions including historic buildings and economic uses, and evaluation of alternatives for balancing historic preservation with economic development. The Village chose to adopt a Local Historic District and become a Certified Local Government in cooperation with the Ohio Historic Preservation Office.