Oxford asks residents what they desire: Affordable housing, transportation, movie theater and more on list

The city has contracted with MKSK, a planning, urban design and landscape architectural firm, to lead the effort. The Feb. 16 online meeting was led by three people from that firm, two of whom are Miami graduates.

Chris Hermann, one of those Miami alums, opened the meeting by explaining the importance of a comprehensive plan, which he described as “a policy document” and said an update is needed after previous reviews in 1998 and 2008.

“To be effective, it depends on ideas from you,” Hermann said, calling it “a framework.”

The plan is divided into sections and this plan is designed to be more inclusive with more sections than past plans addressed. He said they would be reviewing to following areas: planning and development; housing; transportation; utilities; economic development; safety, health and equity; town and gown relations; parks and recreation and climate.

“Planning and development is a very important one. Housing is important in Oxford and across the country. Mobility and how to get around is more than just cars,” Hermann said. “Two are new, community well-being and climate and sustainability. Culture and recreation are important because they are what brings people here.”

Another Miami alum on the MKSK staff, Sarah Lilly, presented an overview of both history and current conditions in Oxford

She presented a series of slides reviewing factors which go into those areas. They can be viewed on the video recording of the meeting archived on YouTube, through the oxfordtomorrow.org website.

Her slides included such things as traffic flow on main thoroughfares, city income and economic factors.

One slide showed 83 percent of Oxford residents live within a 10-minute walk of parks and recreation facilities while the national average is 55 percent.

“Ideally, every resident should be within a 10-minute walk,” Lilly said.

Another showed 51 percent of employed residents are employed by Miami University, with 49 percent working for all other employers, prompting her question, “How do we create more of that year-round employment?”

Participants in the meeting were invited to use their Smartphones to provide their comments on various questions which then carried onto the screen through a scrolling list of them. Lilly and MKSK’s Kyle May reminded everyone all such comments would be taken into account and provide the basis for the next public input meeting April 21.

Common among comments about things people would change or improve in Oxford was the theme of restaurants including greater diversity of them. He said 175 responses mentioned restaurants.

“It’s been a rough couple years for those folks. That’s part of your DNA,” May said.

A random sampling of comments to the question, “What is missing that would make Oxford a more welcoming, livable place?”, included:

Participants were also asked to rank their priorities among the nine study topics and results of that poll were not reported, but Hermann thanked everyone for considering them.

“We will address all of them, but this will help get ideas from you about priorities,” he said.

May added: “We’ll get to a playbook of things to do (based on priorities).”

Participants were then asked for other comments or ideas they would like to share and those included:

Anyone who was unable to take part in the meeting is encouraged to watch it through the oxfordtomorrow.org website, which also has a way to add more comments to the mix. Comments can also be e-mailed or written out and dropped off at the municipal building or dropped off in the city’s fine/payment boxes. There are postcards in the municipal building as well as other locations around town to provide further access.

“This is your plan, so it is important for you to be a part of the plan,” Hermann said in the closing. “Tell your friends and neighbors and others to be a part.”

May echoed that, saying, “This is a big deal. Anyone who cares about Oxford should be a part.”