A pretty decent town, actually.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looks very neat and clean, as one would expect in Holmes county.  The nice old courthouse could stand a bit of work on the roof and tower though.  Looks a bit forgotten.  The streetscape appears pretty healthy as well.

 

Millersburg benefits from being isolated and not having that much sprawl (at all).

Very nice! It looks better-preserved, healthier and more prosperous than many small towns.

It's a touristy little town actually.  It pulls in alot of daytrippers looking to shop for antiques and gawk at the Amish folk.

That's the thing, isn't it? It's tough to find a small town in this part of the country that is self-sufficient and doing OK.

 

IE, is there such a thing as a prosperous small town that doesn't depend on tourism or big city commuters to prop it up? That description probably only fits the towns that have some huge multinational factory nearby.

A very nice town and I love the new streetlamps and mast-arm traffic signals.

 

^ What a fugly new building.

 

I'm surprised that Ohio hasn't switched to using all LED traffic signals yet. There are a few signals in southern Ohio that I have seen, but it's really a mixed bag.

Does Holmes County have an urban growth boundary? Or any strict development plans? I know the population of the county is just increasing at an ever faster rate...

I wouldn't think there is an urban growth boundary.  I've never heard of one in Ohio, and I don't think they are possible given that we are a "home rule state".

Millersburg benefits from being isolated and not having that much sprawl (at all).

 

Millersburg may not have a lot of residential sprawl, but it has horrible retail sprawl that gets worse every year, especially just south on Ohio 83/US 62. It's also getting worse east of town on Ohio 39.

 

Actually, Holmes County has no zoning and is full of people with fierce resistance to it. So kitschy non-Amish tourist traps pretending to be Amish are springing up along all the major roads. As are small factories in the middle of the tourism and agricultural areas. Holmes is the 6th leading agricultural county in Ohio in terms of market value of production ($98 million a year BC -- that's Before Cheese; when cheesemaking is factored in, the number jumps). But all the rural sprawl is a threat to the agricultural economy -- and eventually to the tourism.

I checked their site, no boundary or much in the way of planning docs, but there is a fierce majority to keep the county rural and their small towns... well, small.

 

They are also fiercely against the chains and big-box centers, which is good. But get some damn zoning in there!