Creating a Master Plan as unique as our community

Springfield Township is a unique, diverse community that is comprised of many different neighborhoods, each with unique character, attributes, and needs. The township includes one school district that is entirely within the township and portions of six others. With a total of 36,319 residents and about 16,000 households, we recognize that an overall Master Plan for the entire township may fail to address the individual and specific needs of a particular neighborhood. Therefore, township officials, staff, and residents worked together in the creation a Master Plan that embraces the township for what it is, a community of neighborhoods.

In creating the original 2010 Comprehensive Neighborhood Master Plan, the Township Board of Trustees and staff designated 12 districts. Given the geographic configuration of the Township, many of the neighborhoods/districts already existed and have a strong identity that is accentuated by a civic, social or sports organization, school district, or church. Others were formed more to reflect common socioeconomic conditions, land use and development patterns, and Township operational and service delivery plans. The twelve neighborhoods/districts are: Valley, Sevenhills, West College Hill, Hollydale, Lexington Heights, Southwest Hamilton Avenue, Northeast Hamilton Avenue, Northwest Winton Road, Pleasant Run Farms, Northeast Winton Road, Finneytown North and Finneytown South.

During the Plan creation process, Trustees and staff visited each district. Each neighborhood meeting began with a presentation of current neighborhood conditions. This provided residents with statistical information as it relates to where they live and how their area compared not only with the Township as a whole but how their neighborhood compared with surrounding communities.

All residents attending the Neighborhood/District Public Meetings during that initial process were also asked to fill out a survey focused on determining resident service expectations, evaluation of Township services and the level of priority or importance they place on each. The second half of the meeting was designed to gather specific suggestions from residents. This segment was used as an idea brainstorming session from residents - things to make their neighborhood better, stronger, sustainable, and more prosperous.

Residents from each neighborhood listed what they saw as the positives of living in Springfield Township. They also listed in what areas they believed opportunities existed to improve the future and specific areas that improvement was needed or where specific focus or solutions were necessary to address a problem area. The next step in the process involved the creation of Neighborhood Steering Committees to work with Township staff in the development of plans designed to take advantage of the attributes, options for the opportunities and solutions to the weaknesses and problem areas.

Throughout 2010, a total of seventy steering committee members comprised of individuals representing each neighborhood district were selected by the Trustees to provide more detailed information and input regarding final plan recommendations over a series of monthly meetings. The committee members were selected from a large group of individuals who demonstrated an interest in participating in the planning process. The plan was formally adopted on May 10, 2011.

To update the Neighborhood Master Plan

in 2016, the original steering committee members were asked if they would like to participate in the 5-year update. Of the seventy original members, approximately half were able to be part of updating process. In order to fill vacant positions on the committee, the Township opened an application process for interested residents to become involved. To achieve proportional representation of the 12 designated neighborhoods, the Board of Trustees appointed 33 new members to the committee. The steering committee met monthly in order to provide feedback on updates recommended for Township operations, infrastructure funding solutions, housing strategies, park recommendations and designs for bike and walking paths. The existing Community Improvement Corporation plan was incorporated into the updated neighborhood master plan.

Individual Neighborhood District Plans: What District Do I Live In?

• Pleasant Run Farms
• Sevenhills
• Hamilton Southwest
• Hamilton Northeast
• Lexington Heights / Glencoe / Wellspring
• Winton Northwest
• Finneytown North
• Finneytown South
• Winton Northeast
• Hollydale
• The Valley
• West College Hill

Neighborhood Districts

This map outlines 12 districts that the township used to create a neighborhood master plan. View the individual street listing of Neighborhood Districts.

Steering Committee Members

Springfield Township trustees hosted individual neighborhood meetings in 2009 to gather public opinion regarding land use, future developments, and resident services. Surveys were also gathered and results were later tabulated. Monthly focus group (steering committee) meetings were then held in 2010 with township staff and residents representing the 12 neighborhood districts. Staff presented recommendations on a specific topics and steering committee members provided their valuable insight as residents. View a video of the planning process for more information.

2010 Master Plan Video