By JAIME ANTON

The Post staff writer

Much of the year will be spent reviewing and improving upon the city's master plan.

Per the city charter, this blueprint for the city's future must be revisited every seven years. The last master plan review was conducted in 2004, and things have significantly changed since then with regard to the economy.

This time around the city is seeking the services and expertise of the Cuyahoga County Planning Commission, who helps steer municipalities through this type of process.

Also providing input will be an advisory committee comprised of various stake holders within the city - representatives from the schools, the city administration, chamber of commerce and residents.

"The master plan process is an effort to look into the future and plan for growth. The Cuyahoga County Planning Commission conducts these types of updates for various communities and for at least one community every year, sometimes multiple communities," said Tom Jordan, community development director for the city.

One plus in having the county participate is that it can provide an unbiased opinion and provide insight into what other communities are doing to grow and change with the times, especially in the area of regionalism, which some communities often avoid.

"The county has a whole effort for regionalism and collaboration. They examine areas where communities can collaborate with services and or amenities," Jordan said. "Some communities may want to say, 'forget what the neighbors are doing,' but by hiring the county, we are asking them to look at regionalism efforts and see how we fit in."

Mayor Bob Stefanik and Jordan met with the planning commission Feb. 7 to discuss the scope of services and the county's proposal for the project.

"We talked about methods that the county will utilize to examine developing trends since 2004 when the plan was last updated, and where the city believes the future trends are heading," Jordan said.

Demographics, population, city services and zoning are all things that will be finely combed when outlining the city's future and goals for the next seven years.

Diversifying the tax base with more commercial businesses and bolstering the town center concept, a Legacy Village concept for North Royalton in the area between Wallings, State, Royalton and Bennett/Ridge roads, were two main goals discussed in the 2004 master plan.

The advisory committee and the planning commission will review all of the 2004 master plan goals and discuss the strengths and weaknesses, where they succeeded and where they failed.

"We'll also go through the zone map and make sure it's correct and up to date. We'll look at the population, are residents older, are they younger, are they family age? What kinds of services and amenities do they want, are we providing them with services and amenities, do we have a long way to go in providing amenities for them?" Jordan said. "We'll start a conversation about what happened before and where we are going in the future."

When the recession hit in 2008 and 2009, trends shifted and the state of the economy hampered some of the goals that were set back in 2004.

"With housing trends, people were moving to bigger homes, with bigger acreage, and now maybe people are moving to smaller homes that are more energy-efficient," Jordan said as an example.

Utilizing the county's services will cost the city close to $50,000. In 2004 nearly $100,000 was spent revamping the master plan. The city will be pursuing a grant from the county to help cover a portion of the cost.

The administration is expected to make a recommendation to council in the next 30 days once the county's scope of work is finalized. During that same time frame, the city will begin forming the advisory committee.

Stefanik said it's an exciting process, and one he is truly looking forward to.

"I'm looking forward to it," the mayor said. "As we move out of the recession, this gives us the opportunity to refine the master plan concept to be more in line with today's economy."