Ridgeville Ready: Inside North Ridgeville’s 15-Year Master Plan

City officials explain what it takes to turn recommendations into projects, including a $1.9 million pedestrian safety grant for Lorain Road.

by Ruth Corradi Beach — Partnership Content | Oct. 21, 2026 | 3:10 PM

Courtesy City of North Ridgeville

The Ridgeville Ready Master Plan was adopted in April of 2024. Its four-point vision established goals concerning the following: abundant amenities, economic vitality, sustainable infrastructure and access to opportunities for North Ridgeville residents. The plan was intended to guide the next 10 to 15 years of the city’s future, and the first annual report, released at the end of 2025, notes specific steps that have been taken in the direction of those goals. (Both documents are available on the city’s website, nridgeville.gov/plansandstudies.)

The path from 2024 to 2039 is a long one, and each goal is at the other end of many steps, says Kim Lieber, North Ridgeville’s director of planning and development.

“A 10- or 15-year plan won’t have every box checked in 12 months,” she says. “What it actually takes to move a goal from a recommendation in a planning document to something built, funded or operating in the real world is rarely simple.”

According to Lieber, there are many moving parts, including creating new tools like ordinances and financing mechanisms. Staff may need support, like outside consultants, for work that’s outside the scope of their department. Connections with partners and agencies who

control funding have to be built, and it’s important to acknowledge that funding cycles, construction processes and engineering reviews will take place over years, not months.

There are six categories in the Ridgeville Ready Master Plan: land use, economy, housing, amenities, infrastructure and leadership. Each one needs elements of the moving parts outlined above in order to reach full implementation.

For example, the plan’s Mobility and Physical Infrastructure chapter is summarized by a single goal: creating a connected community. The plan states that accessible, safe and multi-modal transportation options are important to maintaining livability as the city grows.

The plan includes numerous recommendations to reach that goal. Recommendation six, for example, calls for the city to identify “high-risk areas that require pedestrian safety measures.” Lieber uses this recommendation as an example of working toward implementing the plan. ODOT’s safety data had already identified a stretch of Lorain Road as a high priority pedestrian segment.

“We built a competitive application around that identification for a project to fill sidewalk coverage gaps and add pedestrian signals along the corridor,” she says.

In July, that project, now known as the Lorain Road Systemic Safety Pedestrian Improvements project, was awarded $1,892,025 by ODOT’s Highway Safety Improvement Program. It’s scheduled to be built in 2031. While this specific recommendation in the master plan is not ready to be checked off as fully implemented, the behind-the-scenes work is well underway.

Mayor Kevin Corcoran emphasizes the importance of the Master Plan: “It touches on almost every facet of the city and its residents,” he says. “It’s important to have guideposts to work toward. When you’re a resident of a city, you want to feel connected to it in some way.”