By Reid Forgrave
Enquirer staff writer
MIAMI TWP. - On an easel in the government center, residents of this Clermont County township list their community's strengths: economic base, public safety, schools.
Then they list the weaknesses: the township form of government, a lack of community identity, not enough funding.
They also list opportunities for improvement: vacant commercial land, redevelopment of older subdivisions, capitalizing on a new connector to Milford Parkway. Then they list the threats to progress: development overwhelming infrastructure, nearby cities annexing land, losing green space.
It's one of the most simple forms of grass-roots government - asking residents what they like and what they dislike - but it's the beginning of what Miami Township considers to be the key to its future.
Last week, Miami Township began forming its comprehensive land-use plan, a yearlong process that allows residents to help determine their township's destiny in one of Southwest Ohio's fastest-growing counties.
The initial steps of "Imagine Miami: Vision 2025" come at a crucial time for the wealthy, mostly residential township bisected by Interstate 275. Little vacant land is left, and the recent exploding residential and commercial development has slowed down. The township has cast aside its rural roots for a suburban identity, but the transition is far from complete.
Township officials are offering several ways for residents to throw their two cents into the vision plan: holding public meetings, distributing community surveys, and soliciting e-mailed suggestions about the township's future.
"A community will be healthy if it can anticipate things such as, 'What happens when a community ages?' " said Della Rucker, a planner for Edwards and Kelcey, the firm hired to do the township's land-use plan. "What happens as all the land gets developed? It's a lot like retirement planning. You have to figure what you want your future to look like, and then you make plans now on how to get there."
The comprehensive land-use plan, which will set a precedent for the township's future rezoning decisions, will be finished in summer 2005.
Possible visions, township leaders and residents said, include more neighborhood-friendly retail and better pedestrian access between residential and commercial developments,
"There's no place here where you can walk from residential neighborhoods to retail centers," said Tommy Clifton, a lifetime Miami Township resident.
This is the first time the 33-square-mile Miami Township has done a land-use plan.
Feedback sought
Township officials are hoping for residents' input about what they want Clermont County's Miami Township to look like in 20 years for its Vision 2025 plan. Fill out a survey in the newest township newsletter that will be mailed in October, or e-mail suggestions to: 
