Balance: Making Evendale a Sustainable Community

By Catherine E. (del Campo Hartman) Hartman

We need to have an equal balance among economic, environmental, and community needs to be a sustainable community.

Evendale needs to balance economic, community and environmental needs to be a sustainable community. If we focus on economic development without consideration of community and environmental needs, we will not remain a desirable place to live. We need to rebalance our priorities and focus. There is more to running a community than taking care of the money. Environmental and community needs must also be addressed to maintain quality of life.

For example, our focus in recent years on development of the industrial and commercial businesses along the Mill Creek have resulted in increased frequency and severity of flash floods in the floodplain. This has been done despite the fact that we have a large cash surplus and more than adequate income. The impact of the floods to local businesses and to the environment has not been adequately considered. Already we have had at least one long-term business decide to leave Evendale because of the recent, frequent flooding. We are trading short term income in the form of tax revenue from the new businesses located in the flood plain, for long-term liability for abandoned businesses and a future blighted business district that will cost far more to remedy than we ever collected in tax revenue. This approach is not sustainable and is not smart. We need to balance economic and environmental needs.

We need to address community issues as well. For example, we lack housing alternatives in Evendale. For those who cannot or do not wish to maintain a single family home, there are no alternatives. So older residents who are empty nesters must leave the Village if they don't want to take care of a house anymore. Many residents have expressed a desire to have some town homes or condominium housing in the Village to allow them to remain in Evendale. This has never been seriously considered by Council. We also need to provide places to walk and ride bicycles safely in our community. Further, we have no plan for parks or additional greenspace in the Village.