environmental features. Where appropriate, requirements for preservation are imposed as part of the permitting process.
7. MARKETING and PROMOTION
Goal:
A cooperative and coordinated approach to marketing and promotion that stresses Oakwood’s many assets and advantages, its high quality living and business environments, its convenient location, and its superior City services and facilities.
EXISTING OBJECTIVES:
1.
Work with the Kettering Moraine Oakwood Chamber of Commerce to market and promote Oakwood on a regional level.
a.
Oakwood has been a longstanding member of the KMO Chamber of Commerce, and regularly has a staff member attend chamber meetings and participate in chamber activities. KMO Chamber representatives routinely organize ribbon cutting events for new businesses in Oakwood and for other Oakwood events such as the 2021 grand opening of the new recycling drop-off facility, the new electric vehicle charging station and the new pickleball courts. Oakwood joins Kettering and Moraine in participating in the annual KMO Chamber Kudos, Milestones and Ovations event each year that highlights important events and achievements in the three cities. New businesses seeking a location in the area regularly contact the KMO Chamber for advice and recommendations on potential business sites.
NEW OBJECTIVES:
1.
Undertake a targeted marketing program that will help attract quality and appropriate new commercial and business uses within the existing commercial areas of the community; depict Oakwood as an easily accessible and viable location for new business development, with a cooperative and supportive City administration.
a.
The Sugar Camp Professional Office complex is essentially full, and only two remaining pieces of land are available for development at Sugar Camp, one at the west end of Sugar Camp, and the other on the north side of the entrance to Pointe Oakwood. No additional undeveloped commercial property is available in Oakwood. While there are occasionally vacant spaces in the Far Hills Avenue and Park Avenue Business Districts, they are usually filled fairly quickly. There is not enough vacant property available to warrant a formal program to attract new commercial and business uses to Oakwood.
2.
Implement outreach programs that will make all new residents, particularly among racial and ethnic minorities, feel welcome and at home within the Oakwood community.
a.
In 2020 and 2021, leaders of the city, schools and library worked closely with a group of Oakwood citizens to establish the Oakwood Inclusion Coalition (OIC). The mission of the OIC is to study, promote, and celebrate an inclusive, equitable, diverse, and welcoming environment and community for everyone who lives, works, visits, or passes through Oakwood. The OIC is still in its infancy as a citizen driven non-profit organization. The 2020 US Census, along with data from the Oakwood Schools, shows that the city is becoming more diverse in several ways. The naturally