WorthingtonTogether – Let’s waste more time and money.

For years, a small coalition of powerful Worthington residents and elected officials, aligned with corporate developers, have been promoting the idea of increasing density, building more apartments and increasing the number of units by more than 2,000 units in our city, currently with approximately 6,000 units.

In 2023 the city completed a housing assessment to determine the “right” number of units Worthington needs to help the region grow at its current pace. This assessment used regional data to support its conclusion, and did not consider Worthington residents.

In addition to a housing assessment, the city approved a corridor study relating to the Huntley/Proprietors/Schrock/161 area. Housing was a part of this study as well as potential commercial outputs.

In Spring of 2023, council, the municipal planning commission, and the board of zoning appeals met with a consultant who said the city does not need a full comprehensive planning process because the housing assessment, corridor studies, and other assessments already exist. Simply take the work that has already been done and find the missing pieces.

Instead of taking the consultant’s advice, city council approved a $460,000 comprehensive plan rewrite – called WorthingtonTogether – to mirror the community outreach that was done for the 2005 comprehensive plan.

I have always advocated for a full ‘census’ of Worthington residents to determine what each resident’s vision is for Worthington’s future – what needs to change and what should remain untouched. I was successful in including this full-scale door-to-door outreach when we started our Visioning Process in 2019. Sadly, because of the COVID shutdown, the ‘census’ piece of the Visioning Process was curtailed since our door-to-door efforts could not be accomplished due to social distancing. I believe a comprehensive census of the entire Worthington public would be far more accurate and meaningful in determining public opinion than the consultant-driven process currently underway.

Now we have a comprehensive planning process that has, to date, included a pre-scripted launch event at the WEC in June. This event was confusing and steered participants towards placing stickers on a city map where development should occur without an option to cite where development should not occur, or what should be kept the same. There was a lunchtime online session for those who could attend during the workday.

And now there is an online survey that is also confusing and opens the door to survey abuse. The survey is three questions The first is an open-ended question about what you treasure about Worthington. The third is a series of demographic questions. The second is a mapping tool that enables the participant to map where they would like to see more housing, more commercial, more transportation options, and more lifestyle features (a sloppy sidenote is placed saying this could include parks).

The survey is weak and the results could easily be misused. A person could take the survey multiple times, therefore skewing results.

There is no qualitive questioning about specific physical or policy attributes that should remain the same – or be changed. The survey simply assumes we need more development.

No doubt the survey results will be impacted by the coalition of powerful residents and elected officials to push their pro-density agenda.

Of course, I know behind the scenes pro-density council members orchestrated their desired outcome before the WorthingtonTogether process even started. The consultant in charge of public outreach is making sure their desired outcome is going to happen.

Rachael Dorothy and Beth Kowalczyk said in July council meetings that the likely outcome of the comprehensive planning process will lead to massive zoning changes in Worthington. If the new plan is going to reflect the views of Worthington residents, as the consultant said at the WEC meeting, then how could these council members know beforehand that widespread zoning changes will be included in the Plan?

Rebecca Hermann (wife of an urban designer with ties to many pro-density developers) is the council representative/liaison to the WorthingtonTogether committee.

They already know what they want to do. So why should we waste 18 months and $460,000 on this Kabuki?