Columbus asking for input on environmental sustainability plan

Columbus is using community input to help guide its ambitious five-year sustainability plan.

City staff worked on the plans in 2005 and 2010, keeping the goals realistic and achievable because the targets were limited to what the city itself could do. For the 2015 plan, Columbus is reaching out to other people to see how they want to make the city more environmentally and energy efficient.

"The first two plans are largely focused on the city needing to lead by example, to demonstrate we're walking the walk," city environmental steward Erin Miller told me. "There's always more work to do. Now what we need to do is move the city, the whole community forward."

That means loftier goals that the city might not be able to meet on its own, like doubling the size of the CoGo bike-sharing program and making park-and-pedal lots for bicyclists, similar to park-and-pedal lots the Central Ohio Transit Authority uses for its buses. A park-and-pedal lot would encourage car-then-bicycle commutes into downtown.

Those are the types of goals that might need a community partner, Miller said.

Earlier plans called for things the municipality could do on its own, like adding solar arrays to its fleet facility.

Columbus is taking public comments on its draft memo until Dec. 17, of which a final version Mayor Michael Coleman will unveil Jan. 9 at the Columbus Metropolitan Club.

Some public comments have already been submitted; for example, expanding the High Street bar recycling program to other locations and considering a surcharge or ban on plastic bags, an ordinance that a growing number of communities have enacted, although none in Ohio.