ABOUT ME
shane hoffman
village council
I have an undergraduate degree from the University of Dayton and a graduate degree from Indiana University/Purdue University of Indianapolis. I have spent 30 years in academic and public libraries, and have been blessed to be able to focus some of my professional energies on food insecurity. I have presented on the topic at the local, state, regional, and national levels. I was able to help facilitate the creation of several grab and go meal locations around the district from 2020-2022. Through these sites, we were able to distribute approximately 25,000 meals to school-age children. These numbers do not include the the herculean efforts of the schools and DNA during this time.
I have been a member of the village communications and marketing team since its inception in early 2022. In addition, I also participated in the Community Coalition that met at the high school for several years
The short version of my goals is to have a town that still feels like the small town I moved into, but is well poised to manage growth and the cost of living. I would dearly love to see my children to not only want to move back, but be able to afford to do so. The last couple of years have seen some good steps in that direction. I want to see that effort continued and expanded.
Vision
If we're going to do more than just pay lip service to the goals, we have to have a plan. Outlined below are the steps I want to take with you as we build a strong town.
Plain City
A strong town begins by making the people the heart of your development strategy. Yes, we must have an economic base to build from, but if we don't like living here, what good is that?
This means ensuring that growth and expansion make the village welcoming to to the community and encourage foot traffic. Too many cities are designed to maximum throughput of vehicles. We have work to do creating safe crossings, making the existing areas more walkable, and creating community space that isn't separate from downtown.
Small business
The upcoming zoning changes and developments are a good start to keeping the dream alive. We can go a step further by expanding those changes to include methods to ensure that it is easy to create a restaurant or other business on a property with room to grow and regulations consistent with growing your business at your own pace.
STRONG SCHOOLS
Jonanthan Alder Schools are a jewel for our community. Our schools perform well and are an attractive asset to those considering a personal move or a place to start a business. Our schools are currently at the bare minimum property tax required to get state funding, and we have have a reasonable 1.25% income tax that supports our district.
In order to maintain our standing with these schools, we have to be able to not just be attractive to new teachers, but we must also be able to retain our good teachers and staff. We need to be able to fund growth as well as maintain our existing infrastructure. Keeping up with rapidly changing technology is a must as well. To do these we need to make smart decisions with our growth and make sure that we are not giving out so many tax breaks that we cannot maintain our competitive advantage.
HOME FOR THE GENERATIONS
It's just not home if the kids and grandkids aren't close enough to drop by for dinner or just to say, "Hi!".
We all know that it's getting harder and harder to afford to live in Plain City. There are a lot of factors at play. We need affordable homes. We need appropriate numbers of rental units across the cost spectrum. A strong town requires strong families. Part of what builds the character of our community is working, living, and worshipping close to home. If we can take advantage of our growing position in the regional economy, build good paying jobs and affordable housing, we can continue to be the close knit community we are. This is not only for ourselves, but we want people who move into town to have that same goal.
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