Officials release list outlining development goals

City officials have unveiled a list of goals they hope to achieve during 2019-2020.

The list is a comprehensive plan that identifies six different aspects of the city in need of modification or improvement, and is an agenda item the city board of directors will determine whether to formally adopt during their meeting on Tuesday evening. The six focal points of the plan along with their objectives are summarized below.

Economic Advancement

Due to a desire to increase the city’s number of jobs, tax revenues, as well as residential property development, the plans identify two objectives that will help to accomplish these things.

• Assist the expansion and prosperity of existing businesses in the city, help to recruit new businesses into the city and continue efforts to construct new residential areas that will allow for housing to be financially accessible to all members of the community.

• Entice county property owners to make the choice to annex into city property if doing so is financially beneficial to the city or if it would catalyze development for the city in some way. If voluntary annexation fails, consider the use of other options, such as political elections or policy implementation.

Infrastructure

The city is focused on ensuring the current and long-term sustainability of its infrastructure, and the plans include four objectives intended to do so.

• Replace or repair the damaged or degrading rock walls that run along Sager Creek.

• Replace or repair the city’s maintenance shop facility.

• Improve the quality of streets, roadways and sidewalks. As their primary guide, city staff will abide largely by the provisions outlined in the Street and Sidewalk Maintenance and Repair Master Plan that was adopted recently in efforts to accomplish this objective, according to the report.

• Create a plan to move aboveground electrical lines underground.

Zoning and Code Enforcement

In efforts to preserve and improve

certain aspects of the city’s residential neighborhoods, commercial areas and the unique atmosphere of downtown, three objectives pertaining to zoning restrictions, urban design and municipal code enforcement were included in the plans.

• Create a new type of zoning code that will apply to the downtown area. In short, city staff will seek to create what is referred to as a “form-based’ zoning code for the historic commercial downtown area, according to the report. These codes are different from typical zoning limitations in that they mandate less restrictions on certain uses of land in the area as well as require that the given area abide by more specific and distinct design standards.

• Draft an updated, comprehensive city plan.

• Revisit, and perhaps modify the city’s Property Maintenance and Nuisance Code. This review and modification process will take place after city staff reviews the code enforcement actions and violations that took place during 2017 and 2018 that relate to the Property Maintenance and Nuisance Code, according to the report.

Finance

The overarching goal for the city’s finances is to ensure that the strategies contained within the fiscal plan are sustainable in the long-term. City staff has identified one objective in the plans that seeks to do this.

• Create a fiscal plan that will apply to both the general fund and the enterprise fund, as well as one that specifies certain amounts that can be transferred from enterprise funds.

Parks

The primary goal of the parks system for 20192020 at the moment is to determine ways in which the city can increase public usage of the water parks downtown. The plans identify one objective that city staff believes can help to do so.

• Explore methods and public policy measures that could be taken that would allow for kayaks and stand-up paddle boards on Sager Creek. City staff will work alongside external consulting agencies and other city departments to determine the viability of this idea, along with its positive and negative consequences, according to the report.

Communication

The goal of city officials working in community development and city communications is simple; to increase interaction and engagement between the city and its residents. The plans identify one objective to accomplish that may help to do so.

• Determine methods that can be implemented to increase involvement and the general flow of information between the city and the community. To accomplish this, city staff will attempt to come up with new ideas that have not been tried before to notify citizens of different community news and events taking place, such as through the distribution of an e-newsletter or a citywide, text-messagebased notification system, according to the report.