The Comprehensive Plan Update process was kicked off by tapping into the thoughts of the City's elected and appointed officials. The goal of this leadership meeting was to set some guiding principles for the planning process and build a shared foundation for the City's strengths and weaknesses today. This meeting included two activities that invited attendees to participate and give their input on the process.

Activity 1: Guiding Principles

Guiding principles are statements that will be used to direct strategies in the comprehensive update to ensure they align with the community’s values. They are a very broad framework that allow for a lot of flexibility (as the update process is dynamic and ongoing) but also act as the first step toward focusing in on what the community needs from the update process.

The first activity asked participants to help shape and refine the guiding principles for the 2026 Comprehensive Plan Update. Participants considered several guiding principle ideas that were categorized across four broader categories: Community and Social Values, Economy and Infrastructure, Environmental Stewardship, and Governance and Planning. Each participant had five votes and were able to disperse their votes however they wished. Following the initial voting, participants split into groups to further discuss the principles and adjust and refine them.

Each small group reported out their top guiding principles to the larger group and consensus was built around the following six:

1. Preserve local heritage and natural landscapes.
2. Base decisions on data, evidence, and best practices.
3. Encourage civic participation.
4. Protect natural resources and green spaces.
5. Ensure infrastructure is reliable, efficient, and sustainable.
6. Maintain flexibility to adapt as community needs change.

The detailed results of this process are available below.

Activity 2: Strengths and Weaknesses.

One way for a community to start thinking about and discussing future planning strategies is by brainstorming Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT). This process is a way for people to start thinking about ideas and it is often done more than once during the update process as it evolves and becomes more focused. The second activity at the kick-off meeting ended the night with a preliminary brainstorm about the strengths and weaknesses of the community. Participants were each given 10 sticky notes, five for strengths and five for weaknesses. They were asked to give their input on what they felt the community did well or what they wanted to enhance or protect (strengths) and then elements that they felt were missing or could be improved (weaknesses). Participants then placed their sticky note input on the wall and categorized them by topic. These notes were collected and compiled into their sorted topics to determine common themes amongst the comments.

The detailed results of this process are available below.