Visioning & Strategic Planning

City Council Visioning & Strategic Planning

In the fall of 2016 the City Council began a visioning process aimed to formulate an organizational direction on the various areas of local governance. Among these areas are economic development and incentives, current and future planning, utility master planning, and growth. The end result of the effort was a new mission and values statement for the City, a list of goals and objectives, and the City's first Strategic Plan, which will help to focus our efforts and provide policy clarity to future decisions.

On August 3rd, 2017, the City Council formally adopted the Strategic Plan. Major focus areas include infrastructure, expansion, image, and amenities. The plan was subsequently updated in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 in advance of the City's annual budgeting process which started in March. It is the intent to update the plan each year, with major plan overhauls every four or five years.

The plan and its appendices are available online:

How the Plan Came Together

We began this work in August with a series of informational workshops addressing background information and current status updates for the various plans, policies, and procedures relating to city governance. More recently the Council has been involved with joint meetings with other civic and governmental organizations including the Economic Development Council and Planning Commission. We have also held focus group workshops with community members to gain feedback and direction on our plan. Our community outreach will continue in February, and we will wrap up the effort later in the spring with a Council retreat, and the drafting and adoption of the strategic plan.

A detailed schedule of the process, background information, and summaries of the progress made so far is outlined below.

Phase I: Background Information & Education (September   to October, 2016)

Where are we now? These workshop presentations provided an opportunity for the Council to learn about details about the various functions, regulations, and existing master plans of the City.

Phase II: Joint Meetings (November, 2016 to January, 2017)

Who are our partners? These sessions were opportunities for introduction and exchange of ideas with the various boards and organizations who impact the community.

Phase III: Citizens as Partners & Public Engagement (January to February, 2017)

What are the values, priorities, and goals of the community?

  • January 17, 2017: Focus Group Sessions - Two, two-hour facilitated sessions with a selected group of 50 community members aimed at collecting feedback on a variety of topics impacting local governance.
  • February 22, 2017: Public Engagement Workshops - An opportunity to gather feedback from a broader group of constituents, with a focus on areas identified during joint meetings and focus group activities.

Additional public input was solicited online through social media and a tailored survey. The survey was open from February 2 to May 15, 2017, during which time we had 96 responses. The results of the online survey are available online.

Phase Iv: Council Retreat or Work Session to Re-Establish City's Vision, Values, Mission (March 4, 2017)

Who are we and who do we want to be? This session will focus on higher policy level topics and will focus on philosophies, goals, ambitions and morals.

  • Facilitated by JCCC
  • Full Day off-site session
  • Create Vision Statement, Values Statement, and Mission Statement
  • Who are we, what do we do, and why do we do it?

View the retreat summary (PDF).

Phase V: Goals, Objectives, Strategies (April, 2017)

What do we want to do? With a deeper understanding of the existing conditions, a discussion about priorities was more meaningful.

  • Identify areas of concern
  • Identify areas of opportunity
  • Articulate individual and group goals and set measurable benchmarks

Phase VI: Strategic Plan (May to June, 2017)

What are we going to do?

  • Establish vision statements for focus areas.
  • Draft a Strategic Plan released for public comment.
  • Finalize Strategic Plan after public feedback and implement.