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Title: 35 Years On: Setting the Foundation for a New Comprehensive Plan for Wilmington, OH

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2013

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Abstract: The last planning document adopted by Wilmington, OH was the 1978 "Land Use, Thoroughfare and Open Space Plan." The 1978 "master plan" was the first community planning document following the closure of the Clinton County Air Force Base in 1971–an event with devastating economic implications. Rather than creating a plan that reflected the newly gained insights during this transformative period in the community, the plan instead was a technical document that broadly analyzed community conditions and offered planning recommendations and guidelines focused on future growth and development. The 1978 plan, like many of the HUD-funded plans spawned from Section 701 of the Housing Act of 1954, is generic in nature and did not provide Wilmington with needed strategic recommendations aimed at addressing prevalent planning issues at the time, or which would enable the community to better prepare and respond to future challenges and opportunities. As was the case during the 1970s, Wilmington is currently in the middle of a transformative period with the recent loss of its largest employer, DHL in 2008 –an economic shock that cost nearly 10,000 jobs and an economic impact of nearly half a billion dollars. Wilmington is now in the process of developing its first new comprehensive plan in over 35 years. As Wilmington has now faced two major economic crises that have taken place at the same air park, a new plan for Wilmington will need to be more explicit in articulating a desired vision for the community, and direct in addressing the risks and uncertainties that the community wishes to avoid. . Using an overview and analysis of the 1978 plan as a comparison, this paper will begin the discussion of building the framework and vision for a new plan for Wilmington that will be strategic in responding to current conditions and providing a tool capable of responding to future issues. Wilmington is long overdue for a new plan, and it will be essential that the next planning phase and subsequent plan reflect the observed changes and lessons learned over the past 35 years.

Url: https://etd.ohiolink.edu/pg_10?0::NO:10:P10_ACCESSION_NUM:ucin1368027222

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Authors: Stuckert, Taylor

Institution: University of Cincinnati

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Degree: MASTER OF COMMUNITY PLANNING

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Pages: 30

Data Collections: IPUMS NHGIS

Topics: Other

Countries: United States