Strategic Planning Committee Report 6-8-2006

Strategic Planning Committee
Report to the City Council
June 8, 2006
The Strategic Planning Committee has accomplished the following since the last report to the City Council:
• Planned for and executed the Kumbaya along with the forms for committees to use in annual planning process.
• Reviewed all committee work plans and worked as liaison to other committees to complete and review plans.
• Completed our own annual work plan.
• Worked on Calendar of our own assignments on task list on web.
• Completed the Community Economic Development Strategy update.
Requests of the City Council:
Socio-environmental Aspects of Development Projects: The committee generally agreed to adopt Greg’s informal approach to “flagging” projects that may need attention from the council (attached). The committee seeks City Council guidance and approval on this.
The committee requests that the City Council provide feedback on the committee work plans to help fine-tune the process for next year. Questions include should there be column numbers in column C? Volunteer hours estimate? Lengths of narratives/amount of detail to be included? How structured with regard to goals/projects? Is this process working and helpful for the council and the committees or is it just busy work?
Upcoming Work:
• Need to do P&P on budget amendment.
• Need to process City Council feedback on effectiveness of the Work Plan form and process to begin work for next budget cycle.
• Will provide off budget review and review of off-plan projects as needed.
• Will continue liaison work with other committees.

Socio-environmental Aspects of Development Projects
Third Draft Greg Streveler, 3/30/06
The Situation
In the next decade as much as $50 million of large scale development could occur in Gustavus. Collectively, these projects have the potential to make major changes in our lives and in the way Gustavus develops in the future. A balanced approach to upcoming development involves identification of effects on the way we live now and on the natural values of our surroundings, and then figuring how to deal with them.
The Planning Committee’s Role
Committee members have voted to continue fleshing out a proposal for us to keep an eye on the social and environmental aspects of upcoming development projects in which the City has a substantial role. But none of us want the procedure to add another big burden to the committee, or to become a bureaucratic snarl like Environmental Impact analysis. Members have said that we should not set up a new review process. In that spirit, it may be better for us to individually scrutinize projects to the degree that our expertise and interest dictate, bringing concerns first to the committee’s attention, and then if voted in the affirmative by the Committee, brought to the attention of the Council.
The Committee’s role would be to describe these issues to the Council, and suggest ways they could be looked into or dealt with further. The Committee would not be mandated to research the potential effects or possible mitigations, unless so directed by the Council.
Right now we don’t have a mandate for any of this. We would need to ask the Council to direct the Planning Committee to draft a procedure for identifying social and environmental effects related to major infrastructure projects that the City is involved in.
A Procedure for the Council to Consider
* The Committee would review the social and environmental aspects of major development proposals in which the City has a substantial role, to the extent that interest and expertise of the Committee members allows;
* It would inform the Council of potential significant effects identified by members and endorsed by the Committee;
* It would provide suggestions to the Council for what might be done to further explore or respond to these effects;
* It would identify organs of the City or other entities that are best positioned to deal with effects that require attention. (the DRC, for any disposal of construction wastes or surplused materials; Parks & Rec, for activity in important recreation sites; Transportation Committee, for questions of traffic congestion, maybe the Planning Committee, for orphans, etc.);
* It would develop a checklist of possible effects to aid in its deliberations (see the attached list).

Socio-Environmental Effects
3/30/06 Draft

Checklist

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Safety

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Physical hazards for residents or visitors

Hazardous substances

• Other

Recreation. Athletic

•

Peace & quiet

•

Access

•

Natural beauty

•

Facilities

•

Other