In January and February 2025, Buckeye Hills Regional Council is hosting a series of community open house sessions to provide the opportunity for individuals, local officials, private industry, and other stakeholders to review Buckeye Hills Forward, a set of economic development goals and objectives that will help shape Southeast Ohio over the next five years. Buckeye Hills Forward was drafted with the input gathered from residents in a series of Community Workshops that Buckeye Hills hosted in early 2024.
As an Economic Development District designated by the U.S. Economic Development Administration, Buckeye Hills Regional is responsible for working with local leaders and residents to draft and update a Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy (CEDS) that encompasses Athens, Hocking, Meigs, Monroe, Morgan, Noble, Perry, and Washington counties. This latest version of the CEDS, which looks ahead to 2025-2030, is titled Buckeye Hills Forward: A Regional Economic Plan.
The community workshops hosted in early 2024 allowed Buckeye Hills development staff to connect with over 200 local leaders, business owners, educators, and community members who shared their input on the region’s strengths, weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. Drawing on more than 2,000 data points shared in these conversations, Buckeye Hills staff spent the next nine months drafting Buckeye Hills Forward.
Input from the upcoming open house sessions will help shape the final draft that will be presented to Buckeye Hills Regional Council’s General Policy Council—made up of county commissioners, mayors, and private sector representatives from across the region—for approval at its annual meeting in April. The plan will then be forwarded to the EDA for its approval in June.
Local officials and residents of Southeast Ohio are invited to register to attend one of the open house sessions. Each open house will take place 4:00 – 5:00 p.m.