Housing Initiative

2018 and 2019 are planning years for the City. We are working on the first city-wide Master Plan since 2005. We’ve adopted a new land use and zoning development code for the city. We have completed Community Visioning. We have a new Downtown Master Plan. In 2018, we worked on a new Airport Master Plan and started a new Transportation Plan at the end of the year to include pedestrian, bicycle, automobile and public transit. Staff is working on various pieces of these plans with the intention of building the entire city-wide plan near the end of this year.

My personal piece in this is Housing Policy. Two things struck me as I looked at our housing stock. First, the Butler County Auditor sent us information showing that total residential housing values in Middletown decreased by $58,000,000 from 2011-2015, when other Butler County communities were starting to recover from the Great Recession. That’s a pretty good indication that we have housing issues making our housing less desirable and therefore less valuable than surrounding communities.

Second, I found an illustration from the 1963 Middletown Master Plan. The neighborhoods that were deteriorating and dilapidated in 1963 look very familiar to what we are seeing today. We’ve identified this as a problem for over 50 years but haven’t found a way to resolve it.

So I started talking in 2017 about what I was seeing and the problems I believed would continue and get worse by not taking action now. After several public information sessions, I formed a committee to start looking at housing stock and ways to make our housing more attractive, valuable and competitive in southwest Ohio. The Committee members are:

Doug Adkins                                        City Manager and Facilitator

Steve Bohannon                                  Council Rep

Ami Vitori                                             Council Alternate

Ashley Combs                                     City Planner

Pastor Torri Colts                                 Public member and CARE

Celeste Didlick-Davis                          Public member and CARE

Jason Hightower                                 Local businessman and CARE

Wendy Hunter                                     Residential Realtor at Coldwell Banker Oyer

Marc Dixon                                          Residential Banker at Guardian Savings

Lenny Robinson                                  Local Developer

Walter Leap                                         Local Realtor and Landlord

Dan Fishbaugh                                    Fishbaugh Homes, new construction

Dickey Brandon                                   Local Home Remodeler and Landlord

Wanda Glover                                     Second Ward Community Council

MPD, MFD, and Health Dept               As needed for various issues

This group will be meeting twice a month to discuss various housing issues and work on creating a 10-20 year housing policy that will improve neighborhoods and housing options in the City.

While the group is closed, we very much want your input. On this web page, you will be able to watch the various housing meetings online, pull up and review all documents and Power Points used at the meetings, read articles that were given to committee members, etc.

And we will have an email dedicated specifically to this process.  If you see something you like, tell us. Don’t like it? Tell us. Have an idea to improve the policy…PLEASE tell us. housing@cityofmiddletown.org

It’s your city and your neighborhoods. Let’s work together to make the best Middletown possible.

Doug Adkins
City Manager