Gloria Ferris

Yesterday Tim and I attended County Treasurer Jim Rokakis’s talk at the City Club Forum.  It was informative and enlightening.  The proposed legislation creating the land bank will provide a time of great opportunity for our region. It can be transformative if done properly.

And that is the question.  Will the creation of this land bank allow local communities to think and develop creatively so that they will function in our new knowledge economy or will the same old development strategies come into play that will do nothing more than line the same old pockets?

Jim outlined the experts he contacted for the research needed to draft the legislation.  He told us that their is bipartisan support for the plan.  He told us of the plan to reach out to Lucas, Hamilton, and Montgomery counties so that they will have input before the legislation goes forward in November.

As always, he treated this controversial subject with compassion, humor, and the seriousness it warranted making for an enjoyable hour and half luncheon.  On Friday, you can go here to hear Jim’s talk in its entirety.  I would then suggest joining us on June 5th for Midtown Brews when Jim will be our featured guest

The legislation passage is only the first phase of the initiative. The bigger piece for me is the disposition of the land once it is banked.  What will the advisory board look like?  What will the function be? How will the county partner with local governments?  How will properties be slotted for demolition, mothballing or rehabilitation?  How will strategic planning be accomplished?  How do we assure that transformative economic development that creates sticky, quality connected places.  

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 29th, 2008 at 12:17 pm and is filed under Cleveland. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.