Faces of Main Street: Jotika Shetty from the Regional Planning Commission

Jotika Shetty views downtown through both a neighbor’s routine and a planner’s lens. She serves as executive director of the Richland County Regional Planning Commission, the agency that helps local governments think ahead about land use and transportation so the whole region grows wisely. She has worked in downtown Mansfield for roughly twenty years and led RCRPC for the past decade.

Originally from India, Jotika moved to the United States in 1999 while her husband completed medical residency in New York. A job offer brought their family to Mansfield, and she soon earned her master’s in City and Regional Planning at Ohio State and began working downtown. They chose to stay because of strong school options for their children and the community they found here. “We’ve loved it enough to make it home,” she says.     

Ask Jotika what has truly carried downtown forward and she starts with the people. “What I think is consistent through all this is how many people are invested in making sure that downtown thrives… they continue to invest not only time and money, but also their love for downtown,” she says. Some ventures come and go, but others endure and “give a sense of place and joy.” That persistence is the thread she sees tying years of incremental fixes and big milestones together. 

The Main Street project, in her view, is a once-in-decades investment that matches that long term horizon. It is not just a surface refresh. The work reaches from underground utilities like drainage and water mains to the sidewalks, curb ramps, and lighting you see at street level, the kind of backbone improvements that let a district age well. “Everything has a shelf life,” Jotika says. If a city does not address aging infrastructure, it only defers costs and compounds problems later.

She also loves the human-scale details you’d notice on a lunch break. One favorite is the low walls that will be installed in the plazas at Park and Main, a subtle edge that helps outdoor seating feel protected from the street. “It’s like a cocoon… you don’t feel like you’re in the middle of the traffic,” she says. Those small choices make it easier to talk, linger, and enjoy the area. 

Her daily walk is part of the proof. “Downtown is probably the only place you can walk out from your office and feel like you know the people on the streets,” Jotika says. You see familiar faces and notice details you would miss behind a windshield. That kind of everyday connection is what a strong main street makes possible, and it is what this project is designed to amplify for the next generation. 

Jotika is realistic about the construction, and optimistic about what comes next. “I’m looking forward to telling the broader community, come down, see how beautiful it is, and experience everything that’s here,” she says. Consider that your invitation now. Shop and dine downtown today, even as work continues, and picture how the finished streetscape will serve us for decades.