For WYSO's City Mayor Series, we talk with Huber Heights Mayor Jeff Gore.
In 20204, WYSO asked listeners to tell us what questions they would ask the mayor of their community. Since then, WYSO's Jerry Kenney has been speaking with local mayors across the Dayton metro and Miami Valley to answer your questions.
In this wide ranging interview, Gore expressed confidence in the city's vision and alignment between the city council and administration.
This interview transcript is lightly edited for length and clarity.
Jeff Gore: I don't say this lightheartedly. I mean, I could not be happier and more pleased with where we are. We are finally kind of in a place where we have our senior administrative staff understand the vision, but what's really great is their vision is council's vision. So that's gelling now.
"... what we do know is that businesses follow rooftops. It isn't the other way around."
Everyone on council — although everybody has some different opinions on how we get there — everybody still wants to get there. So my line might be from A to B, Their line might have A to A-B, A-C before they finally get to B right but I have confidence that we're going to get to B, and I think that is a level of confidence that I haven't had over the last, well, from 2018 through probably 2023. Because as much as I appreciated some of the different directions that some other council people wanted to go, it just wasn't where I wanted to go. And not that my opinion is the end all be all, but it was the majority opinion of council and really all that matters is we're doing the right things for the taxpayers, we're getting a return on their investment and, attracting the businesses and the growth that so many people in this community have said they've wanted over the years.
Jerry Kenney: You mentioned consensus on the vision for Huber Heights. Let's talk about what that vision is. I've heard it said that Huber Heights won't stop until they're the biggest city in the state. What do you think of that commentary and what is the vision actually?
Gore: I've seen a lot of people talk about this reaching 50,000 in population. So if that happens, great, but that's not the driving force. I've read people think there's all this government funding that will come from the state if you have 50,000 people, and that isn't necessarily the case.
"So people who are against the growth, who just think I'm on this mission to become a city of 50,00 people, they just couldn't be further from the truth. If that happens, it happens."
It's helpful, but if you had 50,000 people, the state classifies you as what's called an entitlement city. And there are extra available funds from the state. I don't know that it's actually extra funds or it kind of cuts out the middleman in how that money transfers from the state to the city. We're probably still 6,000 to 7,000 people away from that.
I don't know that there's that much more room to grow here.
We do have boundaries. The annexation that just happened into Bethel Township certainly isn't... that's going to be maybe another 2,500 people, but that's not going to put us to 50,000. So people who are against the growth, who just think I'm on this mission to become a city of 50,000 people, they just couldn't be further from the truth. If that happens, it happens.
The ultimate goal for me has always been to attract more business, because the more businesses you have paying business tax and things like that to the city, that increases that tax base. The goal is always to be able to try to reduce the tax burden on the people, right? So that's the ultimate goal. But what we do know is that businesses follow rooftops. It isn't the other way around. And I can't yell this from the rooftops enough, right. You don't just build a business out in the middle of a field and expect that people are going to come. It's not like Field of Dreams. It isn't a 'build it and it will come' scenario. Economics doesn't work that way. The businesses have to have the confidence that there's enough people that will frequent their business for them to be successful, so they'll make that investment into the community.
Kenney: You mentioned the rooftops and the people living under them. What else do Huber Heights citizens want that they maybe don't have yet? Or what do they like about living here?
Gore: People are always much happier if they love the space, they're in, right? So that's kind of the thing. So that why we're focused so much on trying to build experiences around Huber Heights, because we also know that's what attracts younger families, right? It's about the experience, how you feel in the place that you occupy. So that is why we are trying to create an entertainment district, a place that is people can come and enjoy and experience that space and then want to come back. We've got 15 parks here that occupy over well over 200 acres.
We don't have enough green space. We're over building. But there's 200 acres of park space here as well that people can enjoy. I think the one area that people have talked about for so long is, we have too many quick serve restaurants. We don't have enough full dining restaurant experience this year. But those are coming because those same restaurants who, as I talked about before, they have to know they're going to have a strong customer base to support those businesses. Otherwise, why is it worth the risk of their investment to do that?
So we've focused a lot on that. And as we announced at the State of the City address, we will have two new full-service restaurants coming to the entertainment district there on Executive Boulevard.
"And I think right now, when you talk to a lot of people in the city, short of some other type of dining experience, everything that someone needs is right here. They don't have to go very far to get everything that they need. It's all available right here in Huber Heights."
And I think as other businesses start to see the success of that, I think only more will decide, hey, you know what, that is. That's a place that we want to be. That's place that can help our business. So that's really kind of been a thing. And then we really are focusing on beautifying the rest of the city. We've done some things to the north side, and we certainly have plans to continue that along the southern side of the city. You know, we caught some grief from some people for buying the shopping center at Brandt Pike and Fishburg, but we did that. A lot of people think that the city doesn't belong in the real estate business or being in the rental business, but what we're able to do is turn that shopping center around and the space is about to be full. And we've increased the actual rent space in those buildings that is on the southern side of town that's been kind of an eyesore for a long time. And we hope that we're showing the citizens that you know what? We actually do know what we're doing here.
And we can continue creating a better space, a better experience for the residents that live on the Southern side of the town south of which is the older section of the city, it's all Ward 5, all the way down to Cloud Park. So it's a long-term vision. It's a long-term process. These things don't happen overnight, and I understand that people don't always understand and see kind of what the big picture, because it does take a long time to make some of those things happen, but we are definitely about beautifying the city, making people feel better and happy in the space that they're in, the space they occupy, giving people more variety in where they go, where they dine, how they spend their money, how they entertain themselves. And I think right now, when you talk to a lot of people in the city, short of some other type of dining experience, everything that someone needs is right here. They don't have to go very far to get everything that they need. It's all available right here in Huber Heights.
