COLUMBIANA CO. Meeting to focus on land planning

The meeting is designed to urge better urban planning.
HANOVERTON -- Creating the types of residential and commercial developments that can be community assets will be the focus of a land-use planning meeting in Columbiana County.
The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Thursday at the United High School auditorium on Route 9. Sponsors include the Columbiana Planning Commission, the Columbiana Soil and Water Conservation District, the Columbiana County Farm Bureau and the Ohio State University Extension Office in Lisbon.
Gene Krebs, executive director of Greater Ohio Inc., will be the guest speaker. His group advocates planning to manage urban and suburban growth and avert development sprawl.
"Columbiana County could benefit from land-use planning because it has experienced unregulated residential and commercial sprawl," Ernest Oelker, county extension educator said, regarding the upcoming meeting. "Subdivisions that have not been part of any plan have put pressure on services."
Farmland disappearing
Oelker said farmland has been lost to sprawl, which has put pressure on schools to accept more pupils without any tax base to support the increased cost for them.
"We are trying to get communities to realize there is a better way," he said.
Krebs, a Preble County commissioner and member of the Ohio Farmland Preservation Task Force, is noted for helping communities plan for managed growth, Oelker said.
"Land use and economic development are closely linked," Krebs said. "If you're going to have development, there are ways to increase its value."
Krebs said he will cite examples of successful communities, such as Greenville, which reversed decay and brought business back to its downtown. He said he will emphasize the value of creating housing developments that will attract young people who can use their inventive, entrepreneurial spirit or college training to create new businesses and prosperity.
Krebs said Ohio, suffering from multiple layoffs as its industries dwindled, would have had full employment, if "sprawl development meant jobs."
Meeting participants will be invited to complete a short questionnaire soliciting their opinions on land-use issues.
For more information on the meeting, call the Columbiana County Extension Office at (330) 424-7291.