Healthy communities don’t happen by accident. They are the result of strategic planning that seeks to create environments where all residents can thrive. We celebrate the role that planning plays in creating great communities each October with National Community Planning Month.
Since the city’s first strategic plan was adopted, four pillars – lifelong learning, health and wellness, arts and culture and sustainability – have guided our planning process and our growth. Designed to engage residents and businesses alike, while building a sense of community, the pillars and our inclusive, intentional planning process have prioritized healthy human connections.
Thoughtful and considerate planning guides our nationally recognized developments, addresses future road and trail networks, and creates new community gathering places that simultaneously improve our quality of life as well as the health and wellness of our community. We have consistently focused on health-related quality of life, including what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention calls “community-level resources, conditions, policies and practices that influence a population’s health perceptions and functional status.”
We continue to plan a future that recognizes the critical importance of health and wellness to our residents as well as businesses seeking to attract talent. Increasingly, workers want to live and work in communities that are attractive, vibrant and safe. Competing for success in a global marketplace means creating places where residents, employees, entrepreneurs and businesses – large and small – want to locate, invest and expand.
New Albany has always believed that our strategic plan is what brings us together and sets us apart from others. It has led to investments in our community that enhance the health and wellness of our community members. With over 55 miles of leisure trails individuals can cycle
throughout the city, walk to the Village Center restaurants, cafes, shops and library or enjoy Rose Run Park’s walking trails, protected bike lane, community plaza, nature play area and creek teeming with wildlife. Our bike share program continues to expand access to cycling for all.
New Albany has been fortunate to have community partners like Healthy New Albany, that encompasses diverse healthy initiatives, from wellness programs and lunch & learns to farmers markets, a food pantry and community garden.
One of the early health and wellness initiatives for the City was the creation of Philip Heit Center for Healthy New Albany. The building is a partnership between the City, Healthy New Albany, Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. The health and wellness center offers primary care, sports medicine, physical therapy, orthopedics, integrative medicine, health and fitness center, demo kitchen and indoor/outdoor community space in the heart of the Village Center.
Our partnerships throughout the community, that value providing a healthy lifestyle to all, have led to events such as the New Albany Walking Classic. The City also plays host to Pelotonia, which includes local routes and stops and peloton teams from local businesses like Abercrombie & Fitch, Bath & Body Works and Anomatic as well as resident groups like Girls with Gears. Not all health and wellness programming are active recreation. The New Albany Community Foundation’s New Albany Lecture Series features a health and wellness speaker each year.
The City continues to develop destination parks within the community to provide residents and employees with places to connect with nature and each other. New Albany is working on an extension of Rose Run Park across Main Street and east along the creek that will feature a new Veterans Memorial. The City’s recently opened Taylor Farm Park offers 34 acres of forested wetlands, two and a half miles of leisure trails and more.
New Albany also recently added a 16-court pickleball complex at Bevelhymer Park. A new fieldhouse and community center are planned for the adjacent land to increase active recreation opportunities within the community, which was an initiative from the latest strategic plan.
New Albany’s success at planning has enabled it to avoid the pitfalls that often accompany growth while effectively prioritizing our community’s health and well-being, allocating revenue, guiding private development, maintaining community character, managing public infrastructure investment and generating income to support services. As we continue to evolve, residents and businesses alike can rest assured that health and wellness will continue to inform and influence all that we do.
Jennifer Chrysler is the City of New Albany Community Development Director.
