AGENDA #7

MEMORANDUM

TO:	Town Council
FROM:	Kevin C. Foy, Mayor
SUBJECT:	Strategic Plan
DATE:	November 7, 2007

BACKGROUND

As you know, the Council adopted a Comprehensive Plan in 2000.  The Plan is a valuable tool that articulates a vision and provides guidance for the directions in which we want the community to move.  The Council has recently indicated a desire to update the Plan, but not to devise a completely new plan.

DISCUSSION

The Council’s recent discussions about land development, and about the directions in which the Plan may guide land development, has led to a concern that it might be useful to examine more closely how the Plan will actually guide land development. For example, the Plan set forth certain criteria for the Northwest quadrant of Town, but when pressures built we discovered that the Council, the neighbors, and land developers had different viewpoints about what the Plan called for.

It is with this in mind that I suggest that the Council engage in formulating a Strategic Plan. Such a plan would build on the Comprehensive Plan, giving the Town the opportunity to hone the Plan’s ideals into more specific goals. In addition to guiding our land use, a strategic plan could help integrate the ways in which our various departments conceive of their role within the town organizational structure. For example, the police department and the public works department might more directly understand their respective roles in carrying out the Council goal of preserving and protecting the natural environment. If all town departments were more directly linked to Council goals, I think we might find a more unified effort and greater resolve in achieving those goals.

In addition, I am interested in examining some of our basic assumptions as we embark on an implementation. For example, is infill and mixed use merely a fad that future generations will dismiss? Or are we building the kind of viable future that will sustain our environmental, social, and economical goals? We should engage in some discussion about this as we consider implementing our Plan goals.

To this end, I invite the Council to establish a Strategic Plan.  I would suggest that we ask our staff to devise a process for us to pursue such a plan, and I would welcome your suggestions for the next steps in this process.