As the plan develops, this blog will provide information related to the project.  You can also follow and participate in the planning process by visiting the following sites.

Important Links & Related Sites

www.westfranklinton.com – This site is serving as the primary information collection & dissemination portal for the duration of the project.  The software that is powering the site is provided by MindMixer.  The topics and information that is disseminated through this site, will evolve as the actual planning project evolves.

West Franklinton Facebook Page – West Franklinton has a Facebook page that will also provide a place to keep folks informed on the planning process.  Links to project documents and project photos can be found on this site.

@WFplan (Twitter) - this is the Twitter account for the West Franklinton Plan.  Follow it and you will never be out of the loop!

Project Timeline

October 2013 – The consultant team begins meeting with the Staff Working group (planners from the City of Columbus, recreation & parks, housing, mayor’s office, and others).  Later that month, the team conducts their first meeting with the Community Working Group, a group of leaders from Franklinton comprised of members of the Franklinton Development Association (FDA), Gladden Community House, Mount Carmel, to name a few.

November 2013 – The consultant team begins conducting stakeholder interviews and collecting “existing conditions” data.  Each parcel within the neighborhood is surveyed and vacancies are documented.  The commercial (retail) market analysis begins.

December 2013 – Stakeholder interviews continue as does the data collection and analysis for the existing conditions.  The housing market analysis begins.

January 2014 – The project’s website (www.westfranklinton.com) goes live.  The public information gathering begins in earnest.  Existing conditions data gathering concludes.  The market analyses (housing, commercial, office, and industrial) concludes.  The planning team meets with the Staff Working Group and the Community Working Group.  Both groups are briefed on the results of the existing conditions report and the market analyses.  Later that month, the first public workshop is held.

Public Workshop #1

On January 28, 2014, the first West Franklinton planning Public Workshop was held at the Gladden Community House.  Even though it was the coldest night in decades, almost 100 hearty souls turned out to provide their input and mingle with others that were interested in participating in the planning of Franklinton’s future.  NBC 4 in Columbus even came out to document the event with a nice video piece with an accompanying web article.

One of the exercises that the public was encouraged to partake in was a mapping exercise where four location-specific questions were posed to participants.  The results of that exercise were as follows:

1. Question:  What one place would make the neighborhood better if it was dramatically different from how it is today?  Please indicate on the map.
   Answer:  Click here to see the map
2. Question:  What do you consider to be the “heart” of West Franklinton?  Please indicate on the map.
   Answer:  Click here to see the map
3. Question:  What is the one place that a visitor to Franklinton should see?  Please indicate on the map.
   Answer:  Click here to see the map
4. Question:  If you could create a new neighborhood park in West Franklinton, where would you build it  Please indicate on the map.
   Answer:  Click here to see the map

February 2014 – The “plan development” phase begins.  This is when the rubber meets the road.  New topics are added to the westfranklinton.com site.  The new topics reflect the progression of the planning process.  The team begins working with the City and the Community Working Group to craft a comprehensive vacant housing & housing development strategy.  Late in the month, the team meets with the Community Working Group to initiate the plan development phase.  Discussion topics include improving community outreach for the next public workshop (scheduled for the end of April).

April 2014 – The 2nd community workshop is scheduled for Wednesday, April 30 from 5-7 PM.  The official press release can be found on westfranklinton.com (in the “about” section) OR you can link to it here.

October 2014 – The West Franklinton Plan has been completed.  You can download the plan here.  The plan is very progressive in its approach; emphasizing connectivity and public open space (parks) enhancements as property becomes available.  The flexibility built into the plan allows for the development of these features in a variety of places throughout West Franklinton.

November 2014 – The West Franklinton Plan has been adopted by Columbus City Council.  You can learn more about the Plan by checking out the City of Columbus’ website.

I debated my previously innocuous choices as I idled away, waiting for the light.  My destination was only five miles from my home at most.  I could have easily biked. I enjoy biking, but had wanted to avoid the rain.  The bus was another option, but the route would have at least tripled my travel time each way, making it an inefficient and unappealing alternative.   So I chose to drive.

Obviously my decision to drive was understandable and nothing out of the ordinary.  I’m willing to bet that most people in the same situation would have made the same choice, but that’s precisely the point.  That people will make choices that are most beneficial or useful to them is obvious, but it’s a powerful framework to build on.  When we as planners or communities try to change collective habits that have a negative impact on our quality of life, we tend to think of some combination of reward and/or penalty.  This certainly has its place, but, where individual choice is concerned, we might be prudent to consider the long term impact of simple convenience on the choices we make.  I would have taken the bus if it were the more convenient option, and I’m positive that I’m not alone.

It might seem to be an obvious thought, and it certainly isn’t a new one.  But it helped me feel a little better when the light finally turned green and I was able to continue to my destination.  Unfortunately, we can’t enact change over night, but we can move forward with a clear idea of how to achieve goals in the long term.  When it comes to altering the individual decisions that increase CO2 emissions, part of the long-term solution will be to encourage better choices by making them the more convenient and obvious option.  It’s a start.

However, many of these transit authorities have not yet published their own data for public consumption via their websites and\or mobile applications. In my opinion, this is a wasted opportunity to improve a product that needs improving – public transportation. One such example is from our hometown, Columbus Ohio. The Central Ohio Transit Authority does have a website, but the route maps are all in PDF format and they aren’t easy to read. They do provide access to a Google widget that can help route your trip by displaying the results on a Google map, but there is no comprehensive system map on the site to see ALL of the stops and routes.

For fun, we here at Urban Decision Group decided to build such a map by using the GTFS data as input. This is relatively easy to do if you have the right tools, which we do. After downloading the data and using ESRI’s ArcGIS to convert the data into GIS shapefiles, we were able to create this map application.  It’s nothing fancy…pretty much a straight conversion of the data with a little housekeeping to make the info windows readable.  It probably took a total of 30 minutes from download to completion.  The point is,…if it’s this easy to build a very basic application, then why aren’t more transit authorities doing it?  I must add, I am aware that COTA is planning on giving their site a makeover and quite possibly adding this type of functionality is part of the face-lift (attention COTA, could we also get updates via Twitter please?).  I’m anxious to see what they come up with.

In the interim, I’m begging the rest of the transit authorities that are stuck in 1998 – please give us a better product to get us on the bus (or train)!  This should not be an afterthought – it is indeed a subset of your product offering.  If you ran a business that provided transportation services, wouldn’t you put a fair amount of energy into marketing and advertising to ensure you were getting the information out to not just your customers, but your potential customer….and anybody that lives within a metropolitan region IS a potential customer.

I’m not picking on COTA, they just happen to be my transit authority.  There are plenty of examples of website fails – too many for me to list.  So that’s why I’m asking for your help.  If you are aware of a transit authority that is falling short in the web and mobile department, then let us know via the “comments” section of this post.  Let’s start a discussion and maybe we can use a little peer pressure to spur some change.