Smart Planning Constortium UpdateMasterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Smart Planning Consortium Update: Annual Progress Report
DATE: February 13, 2012
Dubuque
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All-America City
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2007
Planning Services Manager Laura Carstens is transmitting the Annual Progress Report
for the Dubuque County Regional Smart Plan.
Michael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:sv
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Laura Carstens, Planning Services Manager
Masterpiece on the Mississippi
TO: Michael Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Laura Carstens, Planning Services Manager'
SUBJECT: Smart Planning Consortium Update: Annual Progress Report
DATE: February 13, 2012
Dubuque
* **
NI-AmencaCily
2007
Attached for City Council consideration is the Annual Progress Report for the Dubuque
County Regional Smart Plan.
The Dubuque County Smart Planning Consortium, consisting of Dubuque County,
Dubuque Soil and Water Conservation District, and the cities of Asbury, Cascade,
Dubuque, Dyersville, Epworth, Farley and Peosta, held a series of public meetings to
gather input on four draft chapters of the Dubuque County Smart Plan and on the
Future Land Use Map in November and December, 2011.
Additional information about the Smart Plan, including, draft chapters, meeting agendas
and minutes, and information collected at public workshops can be found at our project
website www.dubuquesmartplan.org.
The requested action is to provide the Annual Progress Report to the City Council as an
information item. No further action is required.
Attachment
Dubuque County Regional Smart Plan Annual Progress Report
1. Current Status - Please describe, at a minimum, the current status of your planning
process including what work has been completed to date, what phases are upcoming and
what types of public participation outreach have been implemented and public
participation results experienced to date.
Smart Planning Vision
The communities of Dubuque County have united to form a Consortium that will create a regional plan for
sustainable development. The Dubuque County Regional Smart Plan will guide future sustainable
development in the region by incorporating the State of Iowa Smart Planning elements and principles.
Smart Planning Consortium Members
Dubuque County City of Farley
City of Asbury City of Epworth
City of Cascade City of Peosta
City of Dubuque Dubuque County Soil and Water Conservation District
City of Dyersville
The Consortium has contracted with the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA) to carry out the
Smart Planning Process.
Plan Status
The Dubuque Smart Planning Consortium (hereafter called the Consortium) is in the process of creating its
regional plan for sustainable development entitled The Dubuque County Regional Smart Plan (DCRSP). The
DCRSP is divided into 14 chapters based on the Iowa Smart Planning Elements and an additional watershed
planning element. As of January 2012, the Consortium has completed drafts of five of fourteen plan chapters
and has three chapters currently in progress. Completed chapters include Public Participation, Community
Facilities, Watershed Planning, Transportation, and Housing. Chapters currently in progress include Land Use,
Public Infrastructure and Utilities, and Economic Development.
Each chapter contains three sections: Overview, Goals and Objectives, and Maps. The Overview section
contains a description of current conditions in the region, data analysis, description of Smart Planning
principles, and a list of future needs. The Goals and Objectives section contains a list of strategies that, once
implemented, will help the community implement the State of Iowa Smart Planning Principles. The Maps
section contains maps of information pertinent to the topic discussed in the chapter.
In addition to the plan chapters, the Consortium has created community overview handouts for each
community. These handouts contain two pages of charts and graphs that provide basic demographic and
economic data about each community. Data included in the handouts includes historical and projected
population, age, race, education, employment, and housing. Drafts of the completed plan chapters and
handouts are available to view and download at: http : / /www.dubuquesmartplan.org.
The Consortium has adopted the following process for creating a draft chapter. ECIA staff creates an initial
draft chapter and set of goals and objectives. Staff presents the initial draft to the Consortium for review, and
the Consortium suggests changes and additions. Once the changes have been made, the Consortium approves
the draft by vote at one of its public meetings. Following approval of the draft, the Consortium representative
takes the draft back to their planning commission or city council for review and public input. The draft
chapters are also available on www.dubuquesmartplan.org. Approved draft chapters are working documents
and can be changed at anytime. Following the completion of the fourteen draft chapters, the draft will be
combined into a final draft plan, which will be approved first by the Consortium and second by participating
city councils and the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors. The draft chapters are currently in word
document format, but will be reformatted using desktop publishing software once all draft chapters are
complete.
Public Participation
At the outset of the planning process, the Consortium created a public participation plan that outlined its
public engagement strategy. To this point, the Consortium has diligently followed the engagement strategy
outlined in the plan. The Consortium has been meeting on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month
from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The Consortium members take turns hosting the first meeting of the month,
while the second meeting of the month is hosted by ECIA. The Consortium posts meeting notices in local
newspapers, and all meeting agendas include time for public comment. In addition to its regular meetings
staff have given presentations to member city councils and the Dubuque County Supervisors upon request.
On March 2, 2011 the Consortium hosted its first public input meeting. In addition to the general public,
elected and appointed public officials and key staff were in attendance. The meeting provided attendees with
an overview of the Smart Planning Process and the issues that the final plan will address. Participants
provided input on the proposed Smart Planning Process and their vision for the future of Dubuque County.
In November and December 2011, the Consortium hosted seven public input meetings at locations throughout
Dubuque County. The intent of these meetings was to educate meeting participants on the Smart Planning
Process and to focus on the specific issues of watershed management and land use. Eric Schmechel from the
Dubuque Soil and Water Conservation was on hand at most of the meetings to give a presentation on low
impact development best management practices that will limit flooding and protect water quality and to
discuss the recently adopted Dubuque County Stormwater ordinance. A staff presentation provided an
update on the progress of the Smart Plan and provided an introduction to land use planning concepts and data
analysis. In many cases, planning commission and city council members were in attendance at the meetings
and were able to learn more about the Smart Planning Process and how the policies and projects contained in
the plan may affect their communities in the future.
Following the presentations, meeting attendees participated in a two part visioning and land use planning
workshop. In the visioning exercise, participants answered two questions, "What do you like about your
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community ?" and "What are three things you would like to see in your community in the next five years ?"
Participants wrote their answers on post -it notes and shared their responses with the group. Staff collected
the responses at the end of the meeting, transcribed them, and posted them on the
www.dubuquesmartplan.org. For the land use planning exercise, meeting participants were asked to put their
ideas for the future land use on a map. Participants drew out their vision for future residential, commercial,
industrial, and mixed use areas. They also picked locations for infrastructure and amenities such as roads,
community centers, recreation facilities, and parks. Staff converted the map from the meeting into a digital
format and posted it on the www.dubuquesmartplan.org. The Consortium plans to hold a similar series of
workshops in the spring and plans to host another large public input meeting to present the final draft of the
DCRSP.
All those involved with the Smart Planning process have been very pleased with the work completed so far
and with the level of cooperation and teamwork that has developed between the Consortium members.
Because of this, the Consortium has already begun planning for the implementation phase of the planning
process that will begin upon completion of the plan later this year. The Consortium hopes to implement the
polices and projects recommended in the plan by creating a "Smart Development Code" that will be adopted
county wide. The Smart Development Code will contain zoning and subdivision regulations that are intended
to implement the State of Iowa Smart Planning Principles and the goals and objectives of the DCRSP. ECIA has
received approval from the Iowa DOT and the Federal Highway Administration to use a portion of its federal
planning funds to help fund the Smart Code Project. The Consortium is currently researching additional
funding sources to help reduce the cost burden on the smaller communities.
2. Time line for completion - Please provide a brief time line including the major
milestones upcoming and likely date for completion of the draft plan and final plan so
that the Iowa Economic Development Authority can begin scheduling project monitoring
visits this spring.
The Consortium has established a timeline to complete the remaining chapters of the plan.
February 2012 — Economic Development
March 2012 — Public Infrastructure and Utilities
April 2012 —Ag and Natural Resources
May 2012 - Hazards
June 2012 — Intergovernmental Coordination
July 2012 — Issues and Opportunities
August 2012 — Community Character
September 2012 - Implementation
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October 2012 — Reformatting and Preparation of Plan Draft
November 2012 — Completed Plan Draft
3. Project web site established - If you have established an Internet presence for your
comprehensive planning efforts, please provide the web address.
www.dubuquesmartplan.org
4. Best Practices - If you have discovered any best practices that are contributing to a
strong local planning process that you think other local governments could benefit from,
please share them here.
One of the Consortium's best practices was not trying to reinvent the wheel by reviewing existing plans before
starting work on the DCRSP. The Consortium started with the existing goals and objectives from its member's
current Comprehensive Plans. The Consortium combined the existing goals and objectives to form a basic list.
The Consortium used the basic list as a starting point for a list of new goals and objectives for each element of
the DCRSP. The City of Dubuque had just completed a unified development code using 11 sustainability
principles and the County identified many sustainable goals and objectives in its 2002 Comprehensive Plan.
Most Consortium members had also updated their comprehensive plans recently. Review of existing plans
helped the Consortium start conversation about the goals and objectives for the DCRSP.
Another best practice was the creation of the Public Participation Plan. The Consortium used innovative public
input concepts from RPA and MPO models that have implemented a successful regional approach to planning
transportation projects. The Public Participation Plan has helped the Consortium gather input from interested
individuals across the county. The Consortium has held public input meetings at each city that will be directly
affected by this planning process. The Consortium has reached out to people inside as well as outside of the
community to gain an understanding of what the residents want from their city and county leaders. This has
all contributed to the success of our planning efforts.
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