February 24, 2005

EDITORIAL

Miami Twp. needs land use plan

While this community is debating the type and extent of growth Yellow Springs — and Miami Township — desires and can support, the Township Zoning Commission is holding up the production of a Township comprehensive plan, which would play an invaluable role in this discussion and in future decisions the Township trustees must make. Zoning Commission members need to stop dragging their feet on the creation of Miami Township’s first land use plan.

Lamar Spracklen, the president of the Miami Township Board of Trustees, has said that the creation of a Township land use plan has been a goal of the trustees for the last four years. It appears, however, that the Zoning Commission, which has been charged with the task of producing the plan, is nowhere near completing its task. The commission needs to help complete this sensible goal of the trustees, who are elected by residents of Miami Township, which includes Yellow Springs, and, therefore, set the policy agenda for the Township government.

So far, some commission members seem to be giving lip service to the plan, saying, as the commission’s chairwoman, Alicia Caulfield, did in an article written by News reporter Lauren Heaton, that while board members are working on the planning document, they have no reason to move quickly. She also said the commission members believe that the Township already has a land use plan in the form of the Township’s Zoning Resolution, and contended that the Township receives direction on land use issues from “Perspectives 2020: A Future Land Use Plan for Greene County,” which was prepared by the Greene County Regional Planning and Coordinating Commission.

No one should expect the Zoning Commission to push through a poorly designed plan of any kind, but after four years more progress should be expected from this board. The Township should have its own planning tools and should not have to rely on Greene County to guide planning decisions.

A good land use plan would not be limited to addressing zoning issues or how land should be used in Miami Township and it would certainly utilize more information than the Zoning Resolution, which codifies the regulations governing land use. Indeed, a comprehensive land use plan goes far beyond zoning regulations. It could provide a thorough analysis of what makes the Miami Township community a community and guide the township community as it debates what it wants to be today, five, 10 and 50 years from now. To understand what a land use plan is, read the Village’s Comprehensive Plan, which outlines the community’s desires for “atmosphere or community character, quality of life and growth rate.”

The Township should follow this example and broaden the Township’s land use plan to include the trustees’ policies on land use as well as on Township services, including the fire department. The plan could address strategies for achieving the Zoning Resolution’s stated goals, including the promotion and protection of “the rural aesthetic quality of Miami Township.”

The members of the Township Zoning Commission are in an enviable position: they get to help shape the future of Miami Township for its residents during what is an important moment in this community’s history. Better leadership and initiative are clearly needed if the commission is ever going to complete the essential task of writing a comprehensive plan suited for Miami Township.

—Robert Mihalek