Town approaches next steps in Comprehensive Plan
Housing affordability and economic development were identified as the top priorities that would
have the greatest impact for Taos residents after a public survey garnered more than 1,100 responses last week.
The survey is part of the development of a new comprehensive
plan for the town, meant to update the Vision 2020 Master Plan and combine the efforts of other development plans.
Liza Miller, planner with Architectural Research Consultants, who is helping the town formulate the plan, said while she hoped for the maximum involvement with the plan, just several people tuned into the meeting regarding the future planning of Taos.
Though the survey gathered some input, during the “Open House” online meeting last Thursday (Oct. 14) only five members of the public were in attendance. Miller said the turnout “wasn’t
great,” but added that she still feels the planning team has “had really good engagement so far … It’s
kind of hard to get people to come out for plans in general. Usually,
surveys are our best way to reach people.”
Overall, she said the survey helped her team gather a better
sense of the community’s values and where they would like to see elected officials focus their efforts
for the next decade. The survey results also show town residents and visitors think “infrastructure development and maintenance” and “provision of services (fire,
police, etc.)” are the top two important roles for town government.
The goal for the new comprehensive plan is to take previous planning documents like the Vision 2020 Plan, the Strong at Heart Plan and various parks, infrastructure and trail plans and incorporate them into one overarching document explaining community goals.
“I hope that the community doesn’t think of this as just another
planning project. The goal here is to take all that previous work and make it more usable,” said Miller.
Miller said the plan acts as a guiding document for elected officials to make policy decisions. “[The plan] will have policies, goals and recommendations. Policies
tend to be a little more overarching and designed so that they can be long lasting,” she explained.
The plan will also get down to the finer details, such as providing a list of specific actions “like time frames and responsibilities.”
“The goal is to take all of that planning work that’s already been done, and condense it, vet it, update it, and then put it all in one place.”
Miller said they are hoping to have the final plan adopted by the town council early next year, “hopefully February.” The plan
should be available in January 2022 for residents to take a look
and provide feedback.