Ashland, Ohio

ASHLAND , OHIO “Our population is roughly 22,000 people and each year, we continue to grow by several hundred. Now that we will have this additional housing, we are excited about the possibility of growing even faster and bringing more individuals with diverse backgrounds to our community.” BVM: Any other recent items concerning development? Miller: “One major step we took this past year to encourage more economic development in our community, and around our county, is we brought, in-house, the enforcement of the non- residential building code, or, in other words, the commercial building code, so that, when a developer or business wants to build, or expand, or renovate here in the City or County of Ashland, now the only call they have to make is right here to City Hall. Our engineering staff and our inspectors have all the certifications they need to review the plan, and to do the plumbing, electrical, and safety inspections. And what this did for us is turn our plan-review time and approval process around; what was taking more than several months, we are now completing in two weeks. And we are getting widespread accolades from the contractors and developers who do business here because things move so quickly and efficiently throughout the construction process. “Many times you read stories about a downtown’s turnaround; how investors have poured millions of dollars into the renovation or construction of a downtown building. Last year, in our city, we had eight dumpsters sitting out on Main St. in front of different, old buildings, and I have to confess I have never been more pleased to see a dumpster in my life because every one of those dumpsters represented another renovation project going on. And the great thing is these are not great big, outside developers coming in and doing these projects. In many instances, it’s our own, lone, local citizens and