BY KATHLEEN HILLENMEYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON -- The population in this booming Warren County city has grown 10 percent for the second year in a row, according to new estimates released by Mason planners.
Mason is now home to about 17,500 residents, up from about 15,863 last spring, City Planner Robert P. Kurtz said Tuesday. The previous year, Mason's population rose from 14,366 to 15,863, he said.
The city derived the estimates using building permit figures and census data calculated by the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission.
"More jobs coming to the area in and around Mason certainly add to that growth, and to the need for housing," Mr. Kurtz said. "Some of the basic reasons for the growth would be Mason's location between (Interstates) 71 and 75. Its proximity to I-71 facilitates office and industrial development. And Mason is basically flat and easy to develop."
The years prior to 1996 showed more modest population spurts -- with a 5 percent leap from 1994 to 1995 and an 8 percent jump from 1995 to 1996.
Alsi Gocmen, a census planner and data analyst with the Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission, cautioned that the population estimate is tentative, pending verification by state officials including the Ohio Department of Development.
"This is a draft number," said Ms. Gocmen, whose office arrived at the tentative estimate using software from the Department of Development. "This software is based on housing activities in communities since 1990."
City Manager Scot Lahrmer said the estimate, however rough, confirms the growth for which planners here have been girding. "Even though this is an estimate, . . . it's a snapshot of what the city is experiencing -- with the increase in houses being built, with increases in jobs, and increases in property values," Mr. Lahrmer said. "Mason is booming on all fronts."
