The city of Oxford is planning for its new comprehensive plan for city development for the next 10 years, which could include public transit and increased environmental standards.
Oxford Mayor Prue Dana serves on the plan's steering committee, which oversees updating process before the plan is sent to city council for final approval.
According to Dana, every decision made in regards to city development is based on the comprehensive plan.
"Once the city adopts the comprehensive plan, all the zoning and regulations come out of that plan," she said. "Right now the land use is probably the most important chapter of the plan. It talks about how much open space we have, how much should be commercial and where light industry should be. It sort of looks at where Oxford wants to go with its economic development."
Some of the proposed areas of improvement in the new plan are the redevelopment of the old Wal-Mart building on Locust Avenue, addressing the housing needs of students and families and the beautification of the entrances of Oxford.
Chair of the Oxford Planning Commission Bill Brewer said that the plan's update is really a community project and not just the work of a few city officials.
Brewer also said that the planning commission has conducted research and held public meetings to get an idea of what the Oxford community wants for the future.
"We review the recommendations and ideas of what people want Oxford to look like for the next 20 years," Brewer said. "There will be other public hearings in June or July where we will talk about things like whether we need more housing, what to do with vacant lots and that sort of thing."
The comprehensive plan will also outline what the city will do with waste water and refuse and plans for arts and recreation, public transportation and recycling.
"A big change between the last plan and now is we are talking about recycling a lot more," Dana said. "We want to build toward LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) standards, which are simply standards by which the environmental responsibility of a community is measured. Those are the kinds of things we really want to focus on as a community."
Brewer, who has served on the Oxford Planning Commission in 1985 and 1997, said that the results of the previous comprehensive plans can be seen all over Oxford.
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"Any of the construction of new buildings in Oxford in the last 15 years is a result of the previous comprehensive plan," Brewer said. "The new housing complexes and the parks around Oxford are all a result of these plans."
Dana said that hopefully the updated comprehensive plan will be up for approval in July or August.
"We started this process about a year ago and we are on track to get (the plan) approved sometime this summer," Dana said. "We didn't start this plan from scratch, we're updating the one from 1998, so we're hoping to get it approved soon."
Meeting times for the steering committee and the comprehensive plan can be found on the city of Oxford Web site at www.cityofoxford.org.
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