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Plan to revamp downtown Toledo heads to City Council

Downtown Toledo is on a good path, with hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in its revitalization. Now a master plan to revamp the whole area is on the brink of Toledo City Council approval.

TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - Downtown Toledo is on a good path, with hundreds of millions of dollars being invested in its revitalization. Now, a master plan to revamp the whole area is on the brink of Toledo City Council approval.

The Downtown Toledo Master Plan is a blueprint drawn up by a team of consultants and the public over a series of meetings and online input in summer 2016.

Wednesday, members of the Zoning and Planning Committee voted to make the Downtown Toledo Master Plan a part of the Toledo 20/20 Plan, which looks to revamp Toledo as a whole. Although 20/20 leaders say the plan is outdated, and they're looking ahead to a 20/40 Plan.

The downtown plan could play a major part.

"Almost everyone we've talked to on sort of the political side of the spectrum has indicated, and I think you heard Councilman Ujvagi say it tonight, is that this is really maybe a first step in looking at 20/40 for the city of Toledo, not just downtown," said Andrew Overbeck, MKSK consultant.

With goals like revamping the entire riverfront, who is going to pay?

Council member Lindsday Webb says they'll be looking for money outside of the city's pockets.

"A concrete example that I can give you is the Mud Hen's Hensville, right? They drew down state capital resources that helped make that possible, and it was a public-private partnership, and that's what I think the vision is for the riverfront redevelopment of downtown Toledo," said Webb.

The next step is for Toledo City Council as a whole to vote on if they like the master plan as a guideline to influence the decisions council makes about downtown.

"As city departments look at making improvements to downtown streets, they would look at the downtown plan to get a sense of what needs to be done - what were the community ideas that were expressed? and how do we design those and implement them?" said Overbeck.

Toledo City Council meets Jan. 24.

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