Toledo is planning a bright future with the help of a new comprehensive land usage guide. Aptly named “Forward Toledo,” the plan focuses on improving the city over the next two decades. After years of development, the plan reflects the community’s diverse needs by allowing residents to weigh in on the plans.
“[“Forward Toledo”] came to fruition a few years ago when we got the strategic study done by the Smith Group which laid the framework,” Ryne Sundvold, a senior planner at The Lucas County Plan Commission, said.
The Smith Group is a design company that creates solutions for urban environments. They recommended five strategies to improve the city based on local data. The “Forward Toledo” executive committee then used those strategies to create five main themes the project would focus on during their initial planning in Fall 2021.
The five themes selected were build, move, place, play and sustain.
Build focuses on city infrastructure with the ultimate goal of preserving neighborhoods and increasing housing equity. Move centers around how residents travel throughout Toledo and aim to support the public transit system and increase sidewalk networks. Place tackles housing affordability, economic development and residents’ quality of life. Play encourages social opportunities and recreational activities by focusing on how residents use land and increasing tourism. Finally, sustain focuses on building infrastructure without pollution, preserving land and native wildlife and maintaining food access.
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Thirty-nine community events were held to spread the word about “Forward Toledo” and gather responses from residents through surveys. The survey results were the basis of the 232-page draft plan document the public could comment on from May 1 to June 15. Following this review period, the final draft was made available for comments before the formal city review in July.
While “Forward Toledo” is not the city’s first plan of this nature – the previous two were in 1951 and 2000 – this is the first time public participation played a key role in development by using feedback as votes.
“Public input is essential for any of these plans,” Fellow Senior Planner Joshua Lewandowski, said. “This type of document comes into effect when development happens in a community, so usually when people show up to these meetings years later, they are the ones against something.” Lewandowski said public response was quite different this time: “You were able to see a lot more public support for the plan.”
“When we did this in 2000 it was a lot of neighborhood meetings,” Toledo-Lucas County Plan Commission Director Tom Gibbons said, “Well, times have changed!” He went on to explain that the internet and social media have been major assets in reaching community members and promoting their surveys.
“We tried to get out there to show that the surveys are available to anyone and everyone to take it. We did traditional social media outlets, we did full pressers online, we even ran an ad in the Toledo City Paper,” Sundvold said. “I think that helped to get some of those numbers up there. We got over 3,000 responses on our survey, and comparing that to other cities of our size, we received a grand slam, out of the ballpark response in terms of numbers.”
Sundvold credits this to committee members being longtime Toledo residents, so they have a more personal understanding of Toledoans’ wants and needs. He said, “Josh and I being the in-house planners working on it felt like we had a little bit more familiarity and insight into the issues in Toledo.”
Gibbons agreed with this sentiment, explaining that it’s the committee’s job to implement what Toledo residents want. “This is not the Plan Commission’s document,” he said, “This is the people’s document.”
Before the plan could become reality, it was reviewed and approved by the City Plan Commission, the Toledo City Council and the Mayor’s Office before being adopted as the third Comprehensive Plan.
Two more public meetings are scheduled on July 9 and Aug. 7 at the City Council Chambers downtown. Residents are encouraged to attend at least one meeting for a final chance to have their voices heard before “Forward Toledo” is set in motion.
Learn more at toledo.oh.gov/residents/forward.
