The City of Pine City is inviting all interested residents, business and commercial property owners, and community organizations, to participate in a new community-driven city planning process. This new engagement process will generate ideas, opportunities and recommendations for the new Community Action Plan (CAP), a new update of the City’s Comprehensive Plan.
“This new approach steps away from the traditional Comp Plan engagement process to established an actionable community plan which typical Comp Plans aren’t designed to do. This new Community Action Plan process empowers the community take a direct role and ownership of Pine City’s future. This new approach allows the community to develop their own ideas to make Pine City an even better place to live, work and play,” comments Todd Streeter, Community Collaboration and project facilitator.
The City is planning an upcoming Community Kickoff event inviting all interested persons to attend and learn how their interests and talents will lead the planning of Pine City through subcommittees matching the interests of the community with the needs of the City.
The goal of the new process is to establish community relationships that take ownership of the resulting CAP recommendations and projects. It is through these expanding relationships and resources that the CAP becomes a strategic ‘action plan’ turning committee ideas into reality.
The first phase of the new planning approach encourages committee members to identify community issues and research successful solutions and new opportunities. Resulting research will be transformed into recommendations for incorporation into the final CAP document. This phase of the CAP project will guide the City council, staff, and community interests for the next 10-20 years. This first phase of the new process is estimated to take approximately 4-5 months.
In the second phase, CAP recommendations will be converted into community projects, allowing residents, businesses and community organizations to participate in supporting any project that matches their interests. The outcome of the new CAP process provides ongoing projects the City and community can work on together to bring to fruition.
The first meeting will occur in March, but the date and location of that first meeting are still to be determined.
The City has hired community engagement expert, Todd Streeter, principal, Community Collaboration, to assist in the City’s planning efforts. Streeter, a former mayor of the City of Lake St. Croix Beach, Chamber of Commerce executive and community foundation co-founder.