City Of Milton: CPAC To Drill Down On 2040 Comprehensive Plan's Key Final Details

Press release from the City of Milton:

05/12/2021 11:57 AM

Milton’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee will convene Thursday to drill down on important final details for the 2040 Comprehensive Plan – including what specific, actionable “work programs” will arise from it.

The May 13 meeting will start at 6 p.m. in City Hall’s Council Chambers. Members of the public can attend there in person or virtually via Zoom at https://zoom.us/j/93532427572. The event should also be streamed live on the City’s Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/thecityofmiltonga/.

This will be the eighth gathering of the group of engaged, appointed civic volunteers known as CPAC. They first convened in August 2020, and – after Thursday – they are next scheduled to get together jointly with Milton’s City Council on June 21. A completed draft of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan is expected to be presented and considered at that meeting. After a month-long official public comment period, the Council could officially approve the City’s next Comprehensive Plan in early August.

Before then, there will be more discussions and direction – like at this Thursday’s CPAC meeting.

Tracie Wildes and Jackie Lim from the City’s Community Development Department will join CPAC Chair Todd Chernik to talk about Milton’s “character areas.” These are defined sections of Milton, each with their distinctive identities, landmarks and in some cases challenges.

The City’s last Comprehensive Plan version, approved five years ago, delineated eight character areas. The newest edition has the same, yet they’ll be presented differently – specifically in picture-filled, easy-to-digest pages that are being called “sizzle sheets.” The goal is that these descriptions can give current and prospective residents and business leaders an effective, visual sense of what each “character area” looks like, what it contains, and what makes it unique.

This discussion will be followed by another deep dive into the proposed “short-term work programs” inspired by the considerable, valuable input from citizens, civic leaders, CPAC members, City staff and others with a vested interest in Milton’s future. As Chernik has said, these represent “The What” of the 2040 Comprehensive Plan; in other words, what specific actions that City staff will undertake to best accomplish the desired goals and objectives.

CPAC members engaged in an exercise at its May 6 meeting during which they went through proposed “short-term work programs” (or STWPs), labeling which ones should be immediate priorities (done in the next few years), which should be more longer-term initiatives (so done in years four or five), and which should be discarded altogether. The suggested “STWPs” got considerable support, with most all being identified as immediate priorities.

On Thursday, CPAC will review the programs once more and for the last time before they are officially unveiled to the public at a May 20 “open house.” Citizens are invited to come to Community Place (the small building next to City Hall at 2006 Heritage Walk) that evening to explore the proposals up close while asking questions and making suggestions to the City’s “project team.”

To learn more about that and other Comprehensive Plan meetings, both past and future, go to www.cityofmiltonga.us/ComprehensivePlan. There you will also find links to relevant videos and presentations, as well as more explanation and information about the Comprehensive Plan.

This press release was produced by the City of Milton. The views expressed here are the author’s own.