The City of Maquoketa is working with the East Central Intergovernmental Association (ECIA) to update the City’s comprehensive plan. The City and ECIA will work together in the coming months to develop a plan that will help the community set goals for the future and guide the community on its path to achieving those goals.
The comprehensive plan is a community’s road map for the future. The plan contains information on all topics relevant to the development of the community. Through the process of developing a comprehensive plan, the members of a community come together to evaluate the current position of the community and envision where they want to be twenty years from now. The community uses its vision for the future to create a plan that will form the foundation for future community policies and projects.
The Maquoketa Comprehensive Plan will examine all areas important for physical, economic, and cultural development of the city. The plan’s comprehensive approach will help Maquoketa understand the complex systems that make up the community such as housing, transportation, economic development, and utilities. These systems have many moving parts that are dependent on each other. An issue in one system can affect several other areas of the community.
The comprehensive plan will evaluate how the community’s systems have performed in the past and forecast how they are expected to perform in the future. The plan’s twenty year planning window encourages the community to take a step back from the day to day and think about what they want the city to look like in the coming months and years.
Achieving long-term community goals can take years, and in many cases, some long-term projects never really end. Large long-term projects challenge cities because they require the community to make a series of decisions over many years while conditions in the community are constantly changing. Changes in regional and national economic conditions, state and federal regulations, community leadership, and many other factors can affect a community’s ability to succeed.
The comprehensive plan will help the community successfully navigate shifting conditions. Changes in the economy can create new opportunity, new businesses create new jobs, and new people bring new ideas. A good comprehensive plan will encourage new ideas and help the community face new challenges while still maintaining a degree of stability and continuity over the long term.
Community involvement is critical for the comprehensive plan. The plan development process will encourage Maquoketa residents to get involved in the planning process and shape the future of their community. A community survey, public meetings, and a project website will help members of the community provide input on the plan.