City Looks to the Future in Comprehensive Plan Update
Improving climate resiliency, public health and housing are main goals identified by city planners when updating the city’s comprehensive plan.
The comprehensive plan uses trends and public feedback to plan future land use. The plan may be used, for example, by city officials to determine what type of development is needed or not needed in a certain part of the city.
Titled “The Bigger Picture: In Focus,” the update covers three main categories: climate, health and housing.
Comments for the plan update closed on June 11, but Principal Planner Landon Bartley said he will always take feedback on the plan, which is regularly updated.
“I’ll never stop taking comments on this thing.” Bartley said. “You have to put little milestones in now and then and say, ‘here’s a deadline’ so that we can logistically make those things happen. You got to stop at some point. But we’re always going to have changes.”
According to the document, successful land use planning involves creating a resilient and inclusive community. The plan includes action items the city can take in the short, medium and long term to accomplish goals related to climate, housing and health, and partners the city could work with to accomplish each goal.
Under the climate category, the update plans to implement a climate resilience plan by creating a climate resilience hub, increase use of renewable energy through greater ease of access and encourage the planting of trees and native plants by consulting arborists and amending zoning ordinances, among other things.
Some of the goals in the health category are improving walkability and preserving land for recreational use, specifically in underserved areas.
In housing, some items the plan includes are updating the future land use map, increasing the diversity of housing types and finding housing for community members who are currently unhoused.
The update was created with the help of a series of community talks on the different subjects in the plan, as well as through student engagement drives, to gauge the full community’s opinions.
“I feel that your plan is kind of useless if it doesn’t have buy-in from the community.” Bartley said.
Bartley estimated that the plan would receive a final vote to be adopted by the City Council in either July or mid-August. However, he called the update a “living document” that the committee will always welcome feedback on.
“It’s been a pretty positive experience, and I’m looking forward to it, to continue to plan here.” Bartley said about the update process. “It doesn’t have to be a good experience. Planning processes can be very divisive, very contentious, very ugly. This hasn’t been, and it’s been very nice. We just see that, and like to see that.”
The full draft of the comprehensive plan update can be viewed here.