October is National Community Planning Month, an important opportunity to recognize the positive impact city planners make in advancing New Albany’s shared vision for the future designed to enhance our quality of life, protect our investment, and build a smarter, healthier, greener, and more equitable community. Led by the New Albany Community Development Department, the City has collaborated with residents and businesses through our strategic planning process to create an unparalleled work-life balance while guiding commercial development that generates income to support our ever-expanding amenities, services, and infrastructure.
Our Community Development team translates these plans to prioritize community needs, guide private development, maintain community character, plan public infrastructure investment, and generate income to support services. Today, tax revenues from the business park account for 82 percent of New Albany’s general fund, supporting everything from police protection and roads to parks, leisure trails, services, and events.
From new community gathering spots to building the infrastructure to accommodate business expansion in the New Albany International Business Park, the City continues to keep pace with growth. Last year, we zoned 882 acres, issues 969 permits, and added 35 miles of roadway, 22,000 linear feet of sanitary sewer, and 27,000 linear feet of water lines. The Planning Division completed plans and reports ranging from Village Center parking and Central College redevelopment to Solar Panel best practices while Engineering Division studies proactively addressed citywide traffic calming, business park traffic impact, water and sewer capacity, and roadway design.
Through the New Albany Community Development Department, the City invests in the people and resources to effectively manage development and growth while protecting and enhancing our quality of life. An “all-hands-on-deck” approach streamlines planning, fast tracks permitting, and meets aggressive timelines to support businesses. Last year, the department zoned 882 acres, issued 969 permits, conducted 7,840 inspections, processed more than 100 planning applications, and launched a GIS-based zoning map. Despite record growth, the average time for building permit review was 18.9 days.
The City continues to prioritize health and wellness with investments in its park system, updates to pocket parks, and new connections to 80+ miles of leisure trails. The recently opened 100-acre Taylor Farm Park features wetlands, boardwalks, walking paths, and an adventure playground. The City is creating a new Veterans Memorial to honor those who have served while expanding Rose Run Park to the east, significantly expanding green space and parkland in the Village Center. Responding to the popularity of pickleball, it recently opened a 16-court pickleball complex at Bevelhymer Park.
In New Albany, we believe a more welcoming and inclusive City makes us stronger. With input from the IDEA (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity & Accessibility) Implementation Panel, the City continues to seek ways to bring people together and build community. Our Juneteenth Celebration, Diwali Celebration, and Senior Connections events are a few examples of community gatherings made possible with revenues generated from the business park.
Last year’s Earth Day to Arbor Day celebration featured a week-long series of events, including an e-waste recycling drive, a “Composting 101” open house, a community creek stomp, and tree plantings. New Albany received the gold-level achievement award from the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Encouraging Environmental Excellence in Communities Program, which recognizes exceptional achievements in environmental stewardship
Our success is the result of an economic development team that strives to create a business climate that is friendly and supportive, from the smallest merchant to the largest corporation. We work with employers to identify and implement strategies that can improve their ability to retain and grow their workforces. The latest examples include the expansion of Innovate New Albany, the City’s entrepreneur and business resource hub, to accommodate the needs of businesses of all sizes. The City’s new BizConnect Lunch Labs are designed to support our businesses and build connections to critical resources from health and wellness to workforce training.
Growth does not come without challenges, but strategic planning enables New Albany to adopt a forward-thinking approach to shaping the built environment, from creating community gathering spots to building the infrastructure to successfully accommodate future expansion without compromising our quality of life.
From the beginning, these efforts revolved around our community pillars – lifelong learning, culture, health and wellness, and sustainability – whether the focus is on future land use, transportation, parks and open space, or community services.
As we continue to experience substantial growth in our business park, residents and businesses alike can be confident that through our strategic planning process future development will continue to meet our community’s growing needs while protecting public and private investment for the long term.