Council Meeting Date: October 8, 2024
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Jake Reilly, Community Development Director
Erin Perdu, AICP, Principal, Stantec
Title
Comprehensive Plan update and discussion
Body
Action Requested:
Review and discuss information associated with the development of the 2045-horizon Comprehensive Plan
Summary Report:
The 2045-horizon Comprehensive Plan was initiated in October 2023 after a request for qualifications was issued. The plan is on-track to be adopted by the end of this year.
Monthly reports have been shared through Planning Commission meetings, Steering Committee meetings, the Comprehensive Plan website and meetings with multiple boards and commissions.
The steering committee and the Stantec/NEOO consultant team continue to work together to craft an engaging easy to read and implement document that honors past comprehensive planning efforts and incorporates relevant elements of the robust Climate Action Plan (2019).
Staff has also presented to relevant boards and commissions to ask for insights and incorporate those thoughts and goals into the document while the NEOO Partners engagement team focuses on conversations with residents - whether in their neighborhoods, at their jobs, or through focus groups with discrete populations with specific shared interests including K-12 students, the faith community, the disability community, the Latine population and many others. Staff has also worked to connect other critical planning documents such as the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) and the shorter-term, Administration Department’s five-year strategic plan efforts in those conversations and have presented those links to members of boards and commissions.
The rationale for the above link being that the CIP implements the goals of a jurisdiction's comprehensive plan, by ensuring timely construction or renovation of infrastructure to provide the level of services identified in the comprehensive plan and help coordinate priorities with those reflected in other supporting plans or documents like the Strategic Plan and Climate Action Plan. This helps a locality review and prioritize projects eligible for Federal and State transportation funds when the projects are needed.
Further, how and where infrastructure is installed and/or updated impacts housing and economic development, as does access to well-maintained infrastructure like roads, sidewalks, and pedestrian and bicycling facilities. Conversations with boards and commissions were designed to arrive at a shared understanding of the relationship between the comprehensive plan, the capital improvement plan, housing and economic development policies, and tools to address related concerns.
To that end, the land use and transportation elements of the comprehensive plan - separated from each other in the adopted 2008 comprehensive plan - have been linked so that the natural relationship between how the land is used and how people get to and from those uses, for example, from home to school or school to work, is leveraged to ensure people can move safely to and from places using whatever means works best for them, whether that’s a bicycle, a wheelchair, a scooter, or a motor vehicle, or any other mode of transport.
Similarly, having a stable, secure home and economic prosperity have a known positive relationship. Therefore, housing, and economic development will be combined into one chapter addressing economic security, stability, and mobility and its relationship with safe, stable, sustainable, and affordable place to live. Planning for economic development and housing together - as we have reunited land use and transportation - helps Northfield grow in ways which are more inclusive, equitable and sustainable.
The plan will clearly link what we heard from the hundreds of people we spoke with - whether for two minutes or two hours - to desired outcomes. These community-derived outcomes will be measurable, and data driven and are designed to fit nicely into shorter-term strategic planning efforts that will begin later this month and continue into the new year.
The presentation from Stantec’s Erin Perdu, AICP will be sent supplemental and include information about:
• What we heard
• The vision and guiding values
• The STEP framework
• The transportation and land use connection (Access)
• The housing and economic development connection (Economic stability and mobility)
• Equity and climate concerns
Alternative Options:
N/A
Financial Impacts:
TBD
Tentative Timeline:
Comprehensive Plan Update Timeline
• October 28, 2023: Public Kick-off meeting for the Comprehensive Plan, Greenvale Park School R
• November 7, 2023: Steering Committee appointed by City Council
• November 11, 2023: Staff requests adjustments to scope and schedule based on an understanding that Planning Commission members are interested in more communication from the consultant team, or staff, about the Plan.
• December 18, 2023: Steering Committee meeting No. 1 R
• December 20, 2023 - Northfield Youth on Boards/Mayor’s Youth Council and members of Age Friendly Northfield steering committee R
• January - March 2024 - Vision phase: Staff/consultant team meets with other boards/commissions for structured/facilitated conversations about desired outcomes of 2045-horizon comprehensive plan.
§ January 17, 2024 - Environmental Quality Commission R
§ January 29, 2024 - Housing and Redevelopment Authority R
§ February 5, 2024 - Parks and Recreation Advisory Board R
§ February 7, 2024 - Heritage Preservation commission R
§ February 14, 2024 - Library Board R
§ February 26, 2024 - Economic Development Authority R
§ February 28, 2024 - Human Rights Commission R
§ March 14, 2024 - Laura Baker Services Association R
• February 28, 2024 - Steering Committee meeting No. 2 R
• February/March, 2024 - Pop-up engagement events: Northfield Hospital, Kwik Trip/Post, Dawn’s Corner Bar, Viking Terrace, NCRC/50th North/Library Oasis R
• January through April 2024 - Analysis Phase
• April 11, 2024 - Rotary Club of Northfield R
• April 18, 2024 - Planning Commission discussion R
• May 16, 2024 - Planning Commission discussion, DRAFT Climate Analysis R
• May 22, 2024 - Steering Committee No. 3 R
• May 29, 2024 - Joint work session Planning Commission and Economic Development Authority R
• April through July 2024 - Plan Phase
• July 24, 2024 - Steering Committee No. 4 R
• July 25, 2024 - Open House at Northfield Public Library, Crazy Days R
• August 29, 2024 - Steering Committee No. 5 R
• September 19, 2024 - HRA Update on comprehensive planning R
• October 8, 2024 - City Council work session
• October 9, 2024 - Implementation work session with City staff
• October 9, 2024 - Steering Committee No. 6
• October 30, 2024 - Planning Commission work session
• October 31, 2024 - Comprehensive Plan Open House, Bunday Room, Library
• November 2024 - Public Hearing draft available
• November 21, 2024 - Public Hearing, Planning Commission
• December 3, 2024 - Adoption of final document by Council
Attachments:
Vision and Guiding Values (draft)
Introduction (draft graphical format)
July 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update
August 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update
September 2024 Comprehensive Plan Update
Steering Committee #4 Packet - July 2024
Steering Committee #5 Packet - August 2024
Steering Committee #6 Packet - October 2024