By Devayani Puranik, Planner, City of Dublin
As a planner working in the City of Dublin’s Long Range Planning Section, my work focuses on drafting a high level vision for future development and redevelopment. I collaborate with other City departments, elected officials as well as community stakeholders to formulate and articulate ideas for developing goals, which are then translated into policy and potential regulations. It is also important that the City’s goals, policies and regulations are progressive with new development trends, new technologies, economic development opportunities and demographic/societal changes in this competitive environment. Two of our recent strategic planning projects embrace these new development trends and technologies by bridging the gap between the values of the City and needs of future workforce.
Dublin is home to 4,300 businesses, 7 business districts, 7 million square feet of commercial space (second largest in the region after Columbus), 2,000-acres of available land, robust infrastructure, a globally recognized fiber optic network, new “speed to build” zoning codes, major highway access and a sophisticated workforce.
Take our West Innovation District, the area now developing around the Ohio University campus, Nestlé Quality Assurance Center and Amazon data center. Located on the western edge of Dublin, our strategic plan aims to clearly define development goals for a targeted portion of this critical economic development corridor. Possible uses include office, research, laboratory and clean manufacturing.
Meanwhile our Dublin Corporate Area Plan focuses on improving Dublin’s legacy office parks in the areas of Metro Place, Frantz Road, Blazer Parkway and Emerald Parkway.
These older office parks face challenges in meeting the needs of future employers and employees who expect to be able to easily access restaurants, fitness centers and other services. To help ensure we keep them competitive, we are collecting and analyzing feedback from community stakeholders through public meetings, open houses and surveys. This area poses challenges given its proximity to existing neighborhoods. The plan recommendations focus on balancing the wants of the residents as well as serving the day-time employees.
For both these projects, we collaborated with our key partners, academic institutions (Ohio University), businesses, and longtime stakeholders (Dublin residents). These collaborative projects will not only serve the local communities but also help to place the City on the world map. In the decade of smart cities and intelligent communities, embracing this shift in urban planning principles from traditional segragatory land use planning to integrated walkbale environments and new technology will help to maintain the competitive edge on the global platform while improving the lives of local residents.
