Congratulations to the City of Hilliard! After a rigorous, two-year process, the City has adopted the Hilliard Community Plan.
In 2021, the City launched a process, called Hilliard by Design, to create major update to the 2011 comprehensive plan and address questions such as how continue strengthening their downtown, how improve the City’s financial health through development, how to accommodate development pressure while protecting natural areas on the City’s western edge, and how to capitalize on the region’s growing economy.
Through three distinct rounds of both in-person and online public engagement, the Planning Next Team was able to extract key points from the community’s input and consolidate them into 8 key “Big Ideas” that will act as a guide for the City of Hillard in the years to come. A summary of the ideas are as follows:
Big Idea #1 – Focus Growth Inward
Big Idea #2 – Create more mixed-use spaces.
Big Idea #3 & #4 – Become a Trail Town to Expand Opportunities for Walking and Biking
Big Idea #5 – Reimagine Cemetery Road
Big Idea #6 – Encourage Mixed-Use Development Around Premium Office Sites
Big idea #7 – Conserve a Greenbelt
Big idea #8 – Expand Housing Options
Reflecting on the process also forces reflection on the COVID-19 Pandemic and its conclusion. As cities around the world, including Hilliard, wrapped up a time defined by disconnectedness, communities have awakened to the realization that connectedness is deeply meaningful. It is evident from the Big Ideas derived from the public input that this is the case for Hilliard.
Special thanks to supporting members of the Planning Next Team: Burgess & Niple, Toole Design, Urban 3, and McBride Dale Clarion.
For more information, reference this video hear more about Hilliard by Design and the “Big Ideas.”
To view the adopted plan, click here.
