The KY 536 Scoping Study, begun by the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments in fall 2014, was adopted last month on a unanimous vote by the OKI Board of Directors. The vote was the last action step necessary to identify the full alignment for improvement of the corridor across Boone, Kenton, and Campbell Counties.

OKI launched this study to identify the transportation issues in this corridor that need to be addressed in order to improve access, mobility and safe travel while enhancing the economic vitality of the region. The goal of the KY 536 Scoping Study was to reach consensus on a recommended alternative for the corridor from KY 17 to the Licking River.

The improvement plan recommended by the study’s project development team—which echoed the public’s responses—is the off-alignment option. This alternative follows the existing KY 536 east from KY 17 and shifts north onto a new segment as it approaches KY 16 to realign with KY 536 near Maverick Road. This shift redirects traffic north of White’s Tower Elementary School in accordance with feedback received from the public.

The alternative then follows the existing KY 536 until one-half mile west of Staffordsburg Road where it veers north onto a new alignment connecting directly with the existing Visalia Bridge. Between KY 17 and Staffordsburg Road Connector, this alternative is a three-lane road. From the Staffordsburg Road Connector to the Campbell County line, this alternative become a two-lane road, with the exception of an 11-foot climbing lane that would be constructed to assist trucks traveling westward from KY 177 to the crest of the Visalia Hill west of Mann Road.

To accommodate bicycle and pedestrian travel, this alternative includes eight-foot multi-use paths on both sides of KY 536, from KY 17 to KY 16, and a ten-foot multi-use path on one side of the roadway east of KY 16. The estimated cost of this off-alignment option is $86.5 million.

Public input was integral to this study. Through three open houses, three online public comment periods, and input from residents and stakeholders shared by the project development team, a good deal of feedback was received from the public.

Robyn Bancroft, the study’s project manager, believes the “entire KY 536 Scoping Study process has resulted in a recommendation that balances the concerns of local property owners who will be most directly impacted by future improvements with the transportation needs of the region at large.”

The identification of an improvement plan for this regionally-significant corridor prepares it for the future phases of development, engineering, design and funding.

The KY 536 Scoping Study Final Report and supporting documents can be found by visiting the OKI website

The Kentucky Bicycle and Bikeway Commission announced last month it is awarding a $10,000 Paula Nye Memorial Grant for 2015 to PDS of Kenton County. Funds will be used to educate citizens about bicycle and pedestrian safety and to raise awareness of an upcoming bicycle and pedestrian planning project.

“We’re thrilled to get this opportunity to help increase the safety of cyclists and pedestrians in our county,” said James Fausz, AICP, a senior planner at PDS. “We knew we wanted to get the word out about the upcoming planning project to as many people as possible. This grant will make a major impact in the number of people we can reach and maximize our chances for success with the plan.”

Fausz explained that funding from the grant will be used in a multifaceted approach that will include public service announcements on Time Warner Cable, an educational video, and face-to-face staff interactions with local public officials. It will also provide for a social media / internet outreach program for enhanced interaction with the community.

“Our goal is to launch the educational campaign just before we kick off the planning project and website to get people interested in participating either online or in person,” he said. “If all goes as planned, heightened awareness of the issues facing Kenton County will encourage more citizens to participate.”

Data from the 2010 Census indicates that Kenton County residents overwhelmingly choose single occupancy vehicles for trips, having serious impacts on roadway congestion and pollution. In fact, currently just slightly over one percent of residents commute to work by walking or other means like bicycles.

“Outreach provided through grant funding will ideally lead to more people considering and choosing to bike or walk for trips that are appropriate for those modes,” said Dennis Gordon, FAICP, PDS’ executive director. “If we build awareness with outreach and the plan then we should see those percentages increase in the 2020 Census.”

The application for the grant was part of a joint effort between Northern Kentucky University and PDS. Staff worked with Thomas Jacobs, a second year Master of Public Administration student, to craft the successful proposal for this outreach effort.

“Thomas was a real asset to the application process. His efforts were much appreciated,” said Gordon.

The Paula Nye Grant was established to improve the safety of non-motorized transportation (bicycle and pedestrian) and is funded solely by contributions of Kentuckians purchasing “Share the Road” specialty license plates.

Michael Ionna, AICP, PDS principal planner, was notified recently that he was elected treasurer/secretary of the American Planning Association’s (APA) New Urbanism Division. The division is one of the APA’s core groups aimed at bringing together communities of professionals who have shared interests in the many issues related to planning and land use.

The division also provides an area where members have the opportunity to discuss ideas, contribute to national policy work, develop conference sessions, and build beneficial partnerships. The purpose of the New Urbanism Division is to provide planners, public officials, and other decision makers with the information, support, and tools needed to eliminate restrictive conventional development regulations. It also encourages new urbanism patterns to be incorporated in appropriate communities throughout the country.

Ionna ran on a platform centered on promoting the goals and objectives of the division, increasing networking opportunities for members, collaborating with other divisions to establish meaningful relationships, promoting opportunities for continued education, and working to increase division membership.

Following release of the election results, Ionna stated, “During my one year term I look forward to the opportunity to interact with exceptional individuals from all over the country to develop solutions and policies that have an impact on a national and local level.”

“I’m proud of Mike for deciding to pursue this opportunity for service,” said Dennis Gordon, FAICP, PDS’ executive director. “We encourage all staff to become engaged in the professional associations to which they belong—if they’re willing to commit the time necessary. It’s a great way to burnish their professional skills while gaining information and contacts that can help them do their jobs in the best way possible.”

Whichever the case, Gordon concludes, Kenton County benefits from their involvement.

 

PDS staff embarked recently on an effort to help inventory and improve Kenton County’s urban parks. The project is a collaborative effort with the Cities of Covington, Ludlow, and Bromley and marks a major step forward for implementation of Kenton County’s Direction 2030: Your Voice, Your Choice comprehensive plan.

The first step of the project involved identifying the location of all park facilities, inventorying the types of amenities provided at each location, and documenting the condition of all existing equipment and structures. This was completed in May.

The second phase of the project focuses on providing a website meant for use as an ongoing public resource and input tool.

“Throughout the Direction 2030 process, we focused on having conversations with citizens to learn what they wanted in the future. This input was a great asset to the plan and provided a springboard for what we’re pursuing now with this urban sub area parks project,” said Michael Ionna, AICP, a principal planner with PDS. “The new website will be a great way for us to continue those conversations and to learn how they feel about park improvements.”

The new website is dedicated solely to the urban parks project. One of its primary features is a survey to gather public input that will serve as a guide for future investment and improvements. Another is an interactive map that will display each park’s location, a corresponding picture, and a description and list of amenities and provided at that location.

“While the site provides a mechanism for collecting public input, it also provides information on the parks themselves,” Ionna elaborated. “We encourage residents to visit RiverCityParks.org to check out the features of the interactive map and to take the survey to “Help Plan Your Parks!”

Watch for future reports on the progress of the plan and be sure to visit the website for more information. For more details on the project, contact Michael Ionna at mionna@pdskc.org or 859.331.8980.

PDS planners are facilitating work by University of Cincinnati planning students to analyze some of the potential impacts improvement of KY 536 will have on adjacent communities. The roadway project, which has been planned for at least a decade, will provide much needed east/west connectivity in central and southern Kenton County.

“This project was meant to provide UC students real-world experience in planning issues that exist in our community. It was also designed to provide our community leaders with an insight into the possibilities for the corridor,” said Sharmili Reddy, AICP, planning manager at PDS.

Over the past several weeks, the class has presented its preliminary reports to the Kenton County Planning Commission, the Independence City Council, the PDS Management Board, and Kenton County Fiscal Court. These presentations were meant to update the boards on the progress of the project, to discuss a few of the preliminary recommendations, and to obtain feedback and thoughts about the project which will be merged into the final reports.

Based upon the students’ efforts and analysis, the class is formulating ideas now for the values, goals, vision, and mission for their final reports. Some preliminary ideas presented thus far include:

•    creating a harmonious transition between the historic downtown Independence, suburban, and rural landscapes around KY 536, balancing the unique needs of each type of development;
•    improving multimodal access to existing developments and amenities locally and regionally; and
•    celebrating the unique character of Southern Kenton County through policies, programs, and activities that recognize and enhance the rural heritage.

As the class nears completion, students will be refining their recommendations and presenting their final reports to staff and faculty. Their final reports will be available on the project’s website.

“We’ve heard many positive comments that the students did a great job capturing the community’s sentiments,” said Reddy. “We hope this experience will help them when they start their professional careers.”

Steps taken by PDS staff during the crafting of Direction 2030 paved the way for implementation efforts now underway across Kenton County. Breaking the citizen input received through the Kenton County Planning Commission’s aggressive public outreach into subareas of the county is paying off now as planners work with local groups to take steps towards accomplishing the comprehensive plan’s goals.

Current efforts are focused primarily on the urban and rural subareas. There are two major advantages to this approach. First, it promotes coordination and collaboration amongst multiple jurisdictions which share a common vision and are working towards implementing similar projects. Secondly, it allows for continued public dialogue around issues that have been identified in the plan as a priority and engages the community in finding solutions. The urban and rural subarea implementation efforts are doing just that.

“Our citizen partners are very enthusiastic about these projects since the focus is finally on implementation,” said Michael Ionna, AICP, a PDS principal planner. Ionna is facilitating implementation efforts being pursued in the urban subarea. “We anticipate that in six months we will have made significant progress on the recommendations.”

Following preliminary meetings with key stakeholders and examination of available resources, the urban subarea project team has identified three projects which implement recommendations of Direction 2030. The current list includes: an inventory and analysis of existing and potential park and recreation facilities; an evaluation and streamlining of zoning regulations and permitting processes; and, development of a tool for documenting current, completed, and potential development projects and initiatives within the urban core of Kenton County.

Work has begun on the parks and recreation project. Over the course of the next few months the project partners will work to inventory recreation facilities and locations to identify the types of amenities being provided as well as the area and population each facility serves.

This information will be put into a digital format to be published online as a public resource as well as a tool to provide input to guide new investments into the system. This project is a collaborative effort between PDS planning and GIS staffs and Kenton County’s river cities.

Work on rural subarea implementation continues with the work of the South Kenton County Citizens Group. Each committee (roads, agricultural heritage, services, and zoning) has met at least twice over the past two months. Ed Dietrich, PDS principal planner, is facilitating this subarea’s implementation efforts.

The services committee has met with the Northern Kentucky Water District to discuss water extension to the remaining residents of southern Kenton County. The committee has also met with the Telecommunications Board and learned about increasing the coverage of its broadcast. The roads committee met with Kenton County’s chief of police and public works director to talk about improving the safety of roadways.

The agricultural heritage committee has discussed various options to promote agriculture. The committee will discuss strategies to attract young people to farming at their upcoming meeting in May. The zoning committee is working with PDS on various zoning options to keep south Kenton County rural.

The citizens group is planning a public meeting on June 15th to receive the general public’s thoughts about the work that has been accomplished so far.

For more information about projects being pursued in these two subareas, contact Ionna at mionna@pdskc.org and Dietrich at edietrich@pdskc.org.
 
 

A newly-formed partnership that includes PDS received notice last month of a $135,000 grant award from the American Planning Association (APA) through its Plan4Health program to combat two elements of chronic disease – lack of physical activity and lack of access to nutritious foods.  The grant will fund activities outlined in Kenton County’s recently-adopted new comprehensive plan.

PDS and its partners will work over the next 12 months to lay the groundwork for a county-wide Food Policy Council to ensure that healthy and accessible food efforts continue into the future. Partnering organizations include the Center for Great Neighborhoods of Covington, Inc.; the Northern Kentucky Health Department; OKI Regional Council of Governments; and, Planning and Development Services of Kenton County.

“I’m really pleased that our proposal was selected for funding; I understand the competition was fierce,” said Dennis Gordon, FAICP, PDS executive director.

“The basis for the project proposal came from the aggressive public engagement we pursued for Direction 2030.org, Kenton County’s new comprehensive plan. Residents told us for the first time that health should be an important factor in future land use planning. These funds will help our partnership take positive steps toward implementing that goal,” he said.

The Kenton County Plan4Health coalition (KCP4H) will work to provide access to nutritious food across the county. Efforts will include a county-wide assessment of underserved neighborhoods in addition to a series of actions addressing affordability of and access to healthy food.

The grant will facilitate an opportunity for the KCP4H coalition to map the area’s full-line grocery stores, locate neighborhoods with limited access to healthy foods, and increase the supply of fresh produce for residents in need. The foundation for long-term efforts will also result from this grant project.

APA’s Plan4Health program is implemented in partnership with the American Public Health Association and represents a major new collaboration between planners and public health professionals. This is the first time that APA, via funding from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has offered grants to promote healthy living.

For more information on the Kenton County Plan4Health Coalition or grant projects, contact Jenna LeCount, AICP, PDS principal planner, at jlecount@pdskc.org or 859.331.8980.

 

 

An important part of any public sector planning effort is the engagement of residents and incorporation of their feedback into the final recommendations. The KY 536 land use study project being undertaken by planning students from the University of Cincinnati (UC) is no different. A new and innovative approach for public engagement will be used to gather input for this critical effort.

New technology makes it possible for citizens to have their voices heard in pioneering ways. PDS, in conjunction with UC’s College of Design, Art, Architecture, and Planning will embark on an online public engagement effort for the KY 536 student project. While online public engagement has been used by PDS in the past, it has never been used as the only platform for public feedback.

This new engagement effort will allow residents to provide feedback when convenient to do so. This effort will commence later in March. Additional information will be disseminated via this newsletter, the PDS website, and social media platforms prior to the beginning of the project.

View the reference map

Seven Outstanding Women of Northern Kentucky for 2015 will be honored at a ceremony in April. One of them is PDS’ own Sharmili Reddy, AICP, Planning Manager.

The annual awards celebrate women who exemplify notable achievements, outstanding service in their professions or to the Northern Kentucky community, and the qualities of personal integrity, perseverance and leadership.

Toyota, the presenting sponsor of the awards, released the honorees' names Monday.

Reddy was named in the Emerging Leaders category along with Claire E. Parsons, associate, Civil Rights litigation, Adams, Stepner, Woltermann & Dusing, PLLC.

Others named for 2015 awards include: Karen Cheser, deputy superintendent of Boone County Schools; Candace S. McGraw, CEO of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport; Kristi Nelson, general counsel and SVP of Shared Business Services; Donna Salyers, owner of Donna Salyers' Fabulous Furs; and, Dr. Lynne M. Saddler, M.D., MPH, district director of health, Northern Kentucky Health Department.

All winners will be recognized at a luncheon and awards ceremony beginning at noon April 16 at The METS Center, 3861 Olympic Blvd.

In January, members of the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments’ (OKI) Intermodal Coordinating Committee (ICC) elected James Fausz, AICP, to be their chairperson. Fausz, who is a principal planner at PDS, previously served as the group’s first vice chair.
 
“I’ve been interested in transportation of all kinds since I was very young, so it’s exciting for me to serve as the chair for a group that works on multimodal mobility,” Fausz explained. “It’s also rewarding to work on bettering our community from the regional perspective.”

Fausz has worked on transportation-related projects throughout his career, which encompasses roles in both the private and public sector.

The ICC advises the OKI Board of Directors on technical issues related to regional transportation planning. With approximately 70 members, the roster encompasses a wide range of professionals in the region.  Members include experts from local, state, and federal transportation agencies; governments from the eight-county OKI region; planning organizations; and, a wide array of business, civil, environmental, and utilities from the public and private sectors.