Politics & Government

City Council Approves Strategic Plan

The College Park City Council unanimously voted to approve the city's new strategic plan.

The College Park City Council unanimously voted to approve the strategic plan for 2010-15 as well as the strategic action plan for fiscal year 2011 at Tuesday night's city council meeting.

Both plans were designed to improve College Park in key areas, by revitalizing the Route 1 area, encouraging green development and fostering community building efforts.

The approval of the strategic plans was the product of more than a year's worth of work and required the expertise of a consultant who helped the council and community formulate a plan that was both practical and consistent with the goals that the city hopes to achieve.

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Denise Hinden, president of Managance Consulting, the firm enlisted to help draft the plan, said working with a city government is a bit different than the non-profits that typically compose her client-base.

"There's a much higher degree of public scrutiny," she said. "The people who care about this really care."

Find out what's happening in College Parkwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The two plans underwent multiple edits and revisions, and not every council member was thrilled with the original concept. Councilman Patrick Wojahn (District 1) expressed his initial reservations, but said he felt positively about the plan in place now.

"I admit I was a little bit skeptical at first," he said. "I generally consider myself more of a doer than a planner … but I think this will give us something we can measure our progress against come this time, or earlier, next year."

Some council members remain skeptical of the plan, saying that basic needs had to be met before resources could be dedicated to ideals.

"I look at the strategic plan as a dream book," said Councilman John Perry (District 2). "We have ideas that we don't have the money to implement.

"Most of the people in my community … are interested in whether their trash is getting picked up, whether the streets are getting swept … and [that] the streetlights stay lit," he said. Perry voted in favor of the plan despite his reservations.

But Mayor Andrew Fellows said that, while it is necessary to ensure that the basic needs of residents are being met, there should be room for dreaming, too.

"I think it's good for us to dream from time to time, and to come up with a vision," he said. "I think there's a desire in the city to think about what College Park could be. We're a good city, but we could be a much greater city."


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