Those were among the comments presented Thursday night to Stantec Urban Places Group, the firm hired to develop a master plan for the mall area. Miami Twp. resident Charles Morgan was among the more than 50 people at the forum to kick off the master plan process.
“I’ve heard so much about Austin Landing and not much at all about the Dayton Mall area,” said the retired Morgan, who moved from Kettering four years ago. “This is a start.”
Morgan was among those who said he would like to see more walkways in the area, specifically on Ohio 741 north of Ohio 725.
“We need more sidewalks,” he said. “It’s important to modernize accessibility.”
The mall – what Morgan called “the hub of the Dayton area” – accounts for more than $200 million in annual sales and surrounding businesses in the master plan district are estimated to employ 8,000 to 10,000 workers.
Yet the area around the 44-year-old complex has never been the subject of a long-term plan, officials said. This, coupled with demographic trends, makes the mall area ripe for change, said David Dixon, principle-in-charge for Stantec.
The desire for owning homes in suburban neighborhoods that offered an escape from the work environment has transformed as baby boomers have aged and millennials have come of age, he said. It has turned into an appetite for more walkable, urban settings where residents want mixed-use developments that allow them to live in multifamily rental units closer to work, Dixon told the crowd.
This presents opportunities “not seen since World War II. We’re able to do something that we haven’t had an opportunity to do in six decades,” he said.
The master plan will focus on a two-square-mile section encompassing Ohio 741 and Ohio 725 in Miami Twp. and Miamisburg, Chris Snyder, a member of the Miami Twp. Joint Economic Development District board that hired Stantec, has said. It will also impact Washington Twp. and West Carrollton.
The plan will have a northern boundary of around Cox Arboretum and a southern one of Newmark Drive, Snyder said.
That’s just north of where Kristi Wagner works. But the assistant manager of Adara Communities, which oversees the Hunters Chase apartment complex, said she remains concerned about the master plan.
“This is going to affect my community in what it brings in,” the Springboro resident said, noting that she wants to see more business and retail to “bring more economic growth to the area.”
What is included in the master plan depends largely on the input and data Stantec collects in the coming months, said Stephen Kearney, project manager for the Boston-based firm. His team spent part of this week talking with area businesses as part of the analysis phase of the process. Other phases – solutions and implementation – will come later in 2015, he said.
After Thursday night’s 90-minute forum, Kearney said the firm will continue the analysis stage, which will last a few months, by interviewing more area stakeholders in December and January.
Meanwhile, consultants focusing on branding, wayfinding, commercial development, hospitality and market analysis will meet in December with real estate brokers “who have a lot of insight that we want to gather,” Kearney said.
Also during the holiday season, Stantec will conduct a Textizen, a process by which it can capture input from a wide portion of the community using mobile devices.
A three-day charrette, at which public feedback is especially important, is targeted for February, Kearney said.
“What is important about the first event is it helps us gauge and understand how interested, how passionate the residents are about the planning effort,” he said.
“And that’s what got us so excited about (Thursday) night,” Kearney added. “The fact that so many people came out shows us that there is a large level of interest in this area, which only makes for a better, more community-driven planning process.”
