Greenwood developing new master plan to fuel growth

For the first time in 16 years, the city of Greenwood is developing a comprehensive plan it says will serve as a blueprint for the future. The plan, which is expected to take a year to put together, will prioritize the expansion of the city’s eastern corridor and reinvestment in “mature” areas of the city, officials said.

Gabe Nelson, planning director for the city, said public input will play a major role in the creation of the plan, which aims to ensure Greenwood remains attractive to existing residents and businesses, while creating opportunities to attract new ones.

In an interview with Inside INdiana Business, Nelson said the time is right for a new plan, and not just because of how much has time has passed since the last one. Census figures show Greenwood’s population has grown from about 49,000 in 2010 to more than 65,000 today.

“Another part is just due to the changing world we live in and the changes that Greenwood’s gone through,” Nelson said. “We’ve seen really a pretty big upswing in population for the city of Greenwood. We’re a much different city than we were just a few years ago.”

The eastern corridor is a key area for the city. Nelson said a lot of annexation of land east of the city is being considered, and officials want to be prepared for continued growth in the area.

“We want to get out ahead of those annexations and start planning for whatever that growth might look like, whether it’s population, providing emergency services for those areas, whether it’s traffic flow, figuring out how we’re going to lay out our streets, before the developments are at our front door.”

The city is partnering with Indianapolis-based HWC Engineering to create the plan, which it said will align with the city’s four pillars: public safety, infrastructure, economic development, and quality of life.

Among the key areas of focus, Nelson said, is the city’s future land-use map that will lay out where the city sees future residential, industrial, and commercial development. The plan will also focus on a future transportation map that would outline planning for infrastructure and roads.

“Greenwood’s new Comprehensive Plan will outline our collective vision for the city, goals and principles to achieve success, and most importantly, it will be a community-driven plan,” Mayor Mark Myers said in a news release. “The development of this plan will be a collaborative effort across city leadership, residents and our engineering partner, HWC Engineering.”

Officials are in the beginning phases of development that will involve gathering data and looking at management plans, Nelson said. Once that is complete, the city will move to public outreach, which will involve online and in-person public workshops, a survey for the public, and stakeholder and focus group interviews.

“After that, we’re going to look at our existing conditions. We’re going to continue with our steering committee workshops,” Nelson said. “We also want to identify some focus areas during this third stage, and we’re going to have our open house to share some of these big ideas.”

The city expects the process to take up to a year before a final comprehensive plan is presented to the Greenwood City Council for adoption.

Nelson emphasized the need for public input as the process goes along.

“I encourage people to think about this as a big opportunity for them to be able to share how they want to see their future, what they want their community to be like, and to come out and support us. Come to the public meetings, take the survey. We do want to hear from you,” he said. We just want people in business and living in the community to come out to share with us. This is their city, so we want them to be a part of this plan.”