The Planning Partnership Annual Meeting is Friday, March 20, 2020 from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm at the Cooper Creek Event Center,  4040 Cooper Road,  Blue Ash, OH 45241. The meeting will consist of networking, updates on Partnership work in 2019, and the Frank Ferris Awards. Lunch is provided. Registration closes on Friday, March 13th.  If you have not yet registered, you can do so here.

Charles Dietz, Master Plans Examiner, in the Buildings + Inspections Division is celebrating 10 years with the County! Thank you for your service Charles!

Hamilton County Planning + Development (HCP+D) is hiring a Program Manager,  Program Specialist , and a Residential Plans Examiner. Job postings for the county can be found here. Please share this information with other professionals looking for new opportunities and if the professional is you, apply ASAP!

March is the beginning of Census 2020. From March 12th through March 20th households will begin to receive official Census Bureau mail with detailed information on how to respond to the 2020 Census online, by phone, or by mail. March 12th is the official date that the Census can be filled out online. Why is this important? The sooner a household fills out the Census, the less likely an enumerator will come knocking in May. Furthermore, local communities, Complete Count Committees and nonprofit organizations working on the Census will have a better idea of where resources need to go to ensure our region does not continue to be undercounted and we can keep resources in our communities.          

Neighborhood Summit: "My Neighborhood Counts. Everybody Counts"

This year's Neighborhood Summit will recognize the 2020 Census year and expand upon the importance that all neighborhoods and all people's voices count. The summit will be held on  Saturday, March 14, 2020 at the Cintas Center at Xavier University. Join the breakout sessions and visit the Census Cafe for engagement activities related to the Census. Also, stop by the Census table for any questions, information and opportunities to take the Census.

Census Undercount Information Session

• Monday, March 16th 9:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m. at the Village of Silverton Municipal Building, 6943 Montgomery Road, Silverton, OH 45236.
• This meeting is for communities that have a previous undercount in population. 
• Topics will be basic planning for the census and where to find help, 
  Complete Count Committee resources & efforts, messaging training, how to explain the importance of the census, getting your stakeholders to the table, and utilizing the ROAM Tool to assist in hard-to-count areas

• April-December 2019: Complete Count Committee formation and educational outreach
• January-March 2020: Complete Count Committee awareness outreach
• Mid-March 2020: Census invitation sent via mail
• March 23, 2020: Census formally opens (mail, online, phone)
• April 1, 2020: Census Day
• Mid-May-August 2020: non-response follow-up by Census workers

Great Parks kicked off their planning process to complete Park & Facilities Master Plans for every Great Park. The process divided the parks into three geographic planning regions: West, Central and East. This spring, will be the kick off for planning in the east region, which includes gathering community input through conversations, surveys and map activities. 

East region parks include: Sharon Woods, Woodland Mound, Lake Isabella, Withrow Nature Preserve, Francis RecreAcres, Otto Armleder Memorial Park, Kroger Hills, Little Miami Golf Center, Avoca Trailhead and the Little Miami Scenic Trail, Bass Island, Little Miami River corridor properties and Great Parks Nature Center at The Summit. Find more information about the process and dates for public meetings  here. If you cannot attend a meeting, fill out the survey here.

" Connecting the Dots: A Summit for Hamilton County's Suburbs" is  on Wednesday, April 8, 2020  at the Cintas Center, Xavier University. This is a free, all-day event bringing civic leaders together to learn from each other, make meaningful connections, and converse on how to address the challenges facing suburbs in Hamilton County. The meeting is open to local government officials, developers, housing professionals, workforce development experts, finance professionals, human and social service agency leaders, academics, students, shared services experts, and more. Find more information and register here.

Interested in learning more about the state of the first suburb communities, check out this article here.

If you know a student pursuing a career in Public Service, the Ohio Conference of Community Development Foundation is accepting scholarship applications until Monday, April 13, 2020. There are 4 scholarships available at $2,000 each that will be awarded at the Summer Annual Meeting in Columbus this year. Find more information on the scholarship here.