Memorandum 15-064 Strategic Doing and the Comprehensive Plan

Memorandum 15-064

TO:                  MAYOR WYTHE AND HOMER CITY COUNCIL
THROUGH:       KATIE KOESTER, CITY MANAGER
FROM:             RICK ABBOUD, CITY PLANNER

DATE:                  MAY 1, 2015

SUBJECT:     Strategic Doing and the Comprehensive Plan

Create a Living Document

Comprehensive Plan

The Comprehensive Plan just got a great breath of life when it was incorporated into the Strategic Doing Process. As a result of this exercise, we have evaluated what has been accomplished and put values on what we have left to do. The next step is to prepare for an update based upon this information and solicit additional information on items that we think should be incorporated in the objectives and strategies. I believe that we can do this if we feel that our vision and goals are still accurate. We have memos from the Police Chief and Library Director on new items for consideration. I recommend soliciting suggestions from the various departments, commissions, and committees for incorporation into the plan. These suggestions should be reviewed by the appropriate commission or committee then be forwarded to the planning commission for additional public process, perhaps an open house or two and then off to a public hearing.

This process will take some time, but the goal would be to measure this in months. Eventually, we will need to prepare for a more thorough examination that includes work on the vision and goals. This effort can take more than a $100,000 and last time we worked on it for three years. This future effort should be supported by allocating reserve funds to the Planning Department. 

Strategic Doing Action Plan

While we are, so far, basing the activities of the Strategic Doing on the Comprehensive Plan, they are two different documents with different purposes. While a Comprehensive Plan is broad and includes lots of background material, the Strategic Doing Action Plan is specific and used as a tool to accomplish tasks. The Council has suggested the addition of items on the strategic doing list outside of the comprehensive and that is fine. I would suggest that we might want to step back and look at the goals of the Comprehensive Plan so that we can envision our tasks in that frame. We then can add additional tasks and capitol items to further the most valuable goals.