We currently live in an area experiencing rapid change. What used to be a community dominated by the farming industry has now changed into a service oriented society. The majority of our workers are now engaged in professions that provide help and assistance to others. This changing lifestyle requires our local government to continually make adjustments, and it is because of change that Create the Vision was begun.

Create the Vision is the joint-Comprehensive Plan for Centerville and Washington Township that was adopted in 2004. It is a guide for development in the community over the next 20 years. A Comprehensive Plan is a guiding policy document for all land use and development regulations in a community. It provides long-term direction about how and where growth should occur.

Create the Vision helps our local government protect and maintain the high quality of life enjoyed here in Centerville and Washington Township.

Create the Vision contains eight goals, 51 objectives and 198 strategies. Washington Township and the City of Centerville are leading the effort and working with the other government entities in this community to implement the strategies identified in the plan.

A committee of citizen volunteers was appointed almost two years ago to serve on the Create the Vision Implementation Task Force. They meet in subcommittee groups to form recommendations for the city and township. They analyze each strategy and provide ideas, suggestions and input about its implementation.

Many strategies in Create the Vision call for new programs in the community, such as an Open Space Acquisition and Dedication program, an Adopt-A-Highway program, a Percent-for-Arts program, and marketing programs to promote redevelopment and infill opportunities. Infill is the development of vacant or underdeveloped land in areas that are otherwise substantially developed.

You may recognize many names on the Implementation Task Force as leaders in this community. Other names you may not have heard of, although they are leaders as well. They all have in common, a strong commitment and dedication to this community, and they all care deeply about the growth and change this area is currently experiencing.

The Implementation Task Force is lead by Brooks Compton, Centerville City Councilmember and Tom Zobrist, Fiscal Officer for Washington Township. The members of this Task Force include Jane Beach, Richard Carr, Paul Clark, Bob Daley, Harry Drain, Carol Fischer, Cynthia Fraley, Joe Harmon, Jon Hazelton, Carol Kennard, Cynthia Klinck, Carolyn Meininger, Gary Smiga, and Ralph Stahl.

Over the past 21 months, members of the Task Force have recommended many changes to strategies contained in Create the Vision. And most often, the City of Centerville and Washington Township have agreed to these changes. The dynamic at work here is the belief and support that Create the Vision is a living, breathing document. It is fluid, and changes are possible to make when circumstances require it.

For example, the Task Force has reprioritized some strategies, changing their time frames from short-term to mid-term. They have also made changes to wording, often times adding more information – such as a strategy calling for the protection of the rural character of six roads in the community – in which the Task Force added two additional roads.

The Task Force added recommendations not originally included in Create the Vision such as a process for referral of strategies to the public entities, and a process for new ideas. They recommended that a Project Manager be hired, which resulted in my hiring, and they also recommended to change the meeting schedule that had been monthly and is now quarterly.

Additionally, members of the Task Force suggested the use of a checklist by the City and Township Planning Departments that includes 36 key objectives of the Create the Vision Plan. They also requested that the City and Township create a “Park Here” map for distribution to the public which shows free parking in downtown Centerville surrounding Washington Township’s Town Hall Theatre.

Everyday we see change. Sometimes it seems slow, more often it seems really fast. What was once an open field has now become a gas station. What was once a bowling alley has now become a drugstore. A few years from now some of our major roadways will look extremely different – with extra driving lanes and turning lanes and connections to freeways we don’t have today. And along with all those transportation changes will come more pressure for more development. Smaller houses will be replaced with bigger houses and farms will be replaced with subdivisions.

As hard as we all may try, we will never be able to stop change. Instead we should do our best to work together to manage change. And that is why the residents of this community are fortunate.

Create the Vision was written because of changes in the community and contains a blueprint to handle those changes. New zoning regulations are being written right now in Centerville and Washington Township to obtain objectives of Create the Vision.

Ten and twenty years from now, I’m confident our community will still be a wonderful place to call home, and for that we will be able to thank Centerville and Washington Township for Creating the Vision.

Thank you for joining me this month in the Create the Vision column. I am the Project Manager for Create the Vision and if you missed last month’s column, you may read it on our website at www.createthevision.org.