In last Tuesday’s council meeting, the City has *finally* approved the 5 year strategic plan.

And this came after months of public input from City residents that include a series of focus group meetings and two public hearings. The approved plan can be found here on the City website.

Please see my earlier posts on the plan here and here.

The changes to the original plan are fairly minor:

  • Added “State Highway Administration” to the list of entities that the City will lobby to allocate funding to rebuild Route 1 (Goal II, Objective 1, p. 6)
  • Added two new action recommendations under Goal III, Objective 1 to establish a LEED-based sustainability standard for new development projects within the City jurisdiction, and to supply the energy needs of all city government facilities with 100% renewable energy through the purchase of renewable energy credits (RECs).
  • Added four new action recommendations under Goal III, Objective 2 – to review site plans for developer compliance with new storm water regulations, to incorporate best practices for stormwater management into all City projects to the extent feasible, to hold at least one workshop to educate College Park residents or other persons about effective ways that individuals and communities can reduce water pollution, and to work with the Prince George’s County police and develop education materials to discourage illegal dumping and enforce anti-dumping laws in the County.
  • Added the State Highway Administration as a responsible party under Action Step a under Goal V, Objective 1 (to plan and implement streetscape improvements along Route 1 in downtown).

“I’m very excited about the ambitious efforts that we will be undertaking over the next year based on this action plan and the strategic plan, and I’m glad that we undertook this effort.”– said District 1 councilmember Patrick Wojahn. 

The City’s progress on the action plan will be measured at the end of the year, in order to both measure progress and to reformulate the action plan for the following year.

[NCP listserve]