Friday, March 26, 1999
Planner says vision for region catching on
Gallis says he senses community 'eagerness'
BY MICHAEL D. CLARK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
MASON — Regionalism guru Michael Gallis is offering up a vision of the Tristate's future that he says is catching on.
Mr. Gallis talked of his regionalism vision Thursday in another of a series of public presentations designed to educate and energize Greater Cincinnatians to the necessity of regional cooperation.
“I sense there is a tremendous eagerness in the community,” Mr. Gallis said after speaking to more than 150 people at Mason High School.
“There is a lot of serious discussion and a great deal of interest,” said the Charlotte, N.C.-based planning consultant.
The Metropolitan Growth Alliance is paying Michael Gallis & Associates $250,000 to study how the Tristate's many municipalities can work closer together to attract and keep businesses and residents into the next century.
Robert Craig, director of planning for Warren County, said after the meeting he was pleased with both the study and the private sector push behind it.
“The private sector is initiating the study and they are obviously concerned about our competitiveness,” said Mr. Craig. “It may be related to the Balkanization of the area — the fragmentation of our governmental bodies.”
The key, maintains Mr. Gallis, is a unified vision and cooperative strategy tying together more than 400 governmental jurisdictions in three different states that comprise the Tristate area.
“But I don't foresee any type of groundswell in that regard,” said Mr. Craig.
“We are facing three different sets of state codes and we have townships,” said Mr. Craig in reference to Kentucky's lack of township jurisdictions.
On the other hand, Mr. Craig said he was encouraged by the very existence of such a wide-scale, comprehensive regional study.
“It's very interesting and very well done. We don't have a whole lot of regional planning going on in the United States,” he said.
Cincinnati City Manager John Shirey has attended almost all of Mr. Gallis' informational presentations around the Greater Cincinnati area.
He cautioned not to expect too much, too soon from the regional effort.
“Remember, this is still the information stage,” he said.
Mr. Shirey said he has been encouraged by the audiences in recent months and the turnout — more than 150 at Mason High School.
“The questions have been thoughtful,” he said.
Tony Blizniak, a resident of Deerfield Township, praised the Tristate's first-ever, comprehensive regionalism study as “very effective in waking people up.”
Mr. Blizniak said the rapid growth in his Warren County community — which is in the second fastest growing county in Ohio — makes such studies imperative.
“It's important people in this area understand the types of problems we are facing,” he said in reference to the traffic gridlock that periodically overtakes parts of Deerfield Township.
is
The alliance, an organization largely composed of local business people, has been careful to position itself as not being a proponent of “unigov” or other forms of metropolitan government, but as a catalyst for regional cooperation.
Mr. Gallis is developing a “framework,” a set of maps that depict growth and development without regard to political boundaries.
Thursday's presentation was the fifth in a series of public meetings throughout the Tristate. Mr. Gallis' final report is due in June.
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