On Tuesday, Ely City Council met with the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee to discuss updating the Comprehensive Plan before 2027.
Kelsey Lee, owner of Potluck Kitchenware and an at-large member of the steering committee, presented the council with the committee’s findings.
“It’s time for a fresh set of priorities,” said Lee, referencing a few goals that have already been achieved from the 2016 Comp Plan, such as the new Trailhead Center.
Lee also said the committee found, “navigation and continuity issues in the current comp plan.”
Viewers of the plan may find it difficult to navigate, as disparate subjects are co-mingled throughout, and the city’s goals no longer provide solid direction to the relevant departments.
The steering committee provided four paths forward for the council to consider.
Option one would be to revise the current comp plan in-house, without contracting a professional consultant. Option two is to hire a consultant to revise the 2016 comp plan. Option three is for Ely to draft a new comp plan, while option four is to hire a consultant to draft a new comp plan.
“Community engagement is the most important, and also most costly piece of drafting a comprehensive plan,” said Lee. “Citizens usually need to connect with an engagement campaign at least five times, called touch points…before someone will opt-in and actually give feedback.”
“The first approach we’re proposing…is bare-bones, working with our boards and missions to update their relevant sections,” said Lee. This option is assumed to have little to no community engagement, while the risk of non-completion (as in the comp plan remains unchanged) is medium. This approach has also been tried in the past by the planning and zoning commission, with minimal success.
Option two had little to no information on the process or timeline, as none of the consultants the steering committee spoke to expressed interest.
Option three has a high risk of non-completion, as, “our planning and zoning administrator would need additional hours to do this, he would also need to shift existing work hours to this effort because it would require this community engagement data analysis and then the actually drafting of the plan,” said Lee.
Option four is the steering committee’s recommendation. The risk of non-completion is low, as outsourcing the plan to a consultant would ensure the needs of the current population of Ely would be met with expertise and professionalism. This is the most expensive option, with estimates between $40,000-$70,000.
“We could use volunteers to do community engagement and achieve cost-savings that way…a consultant would provide a better product than what we think we can produce on our own, however, we serve at the direction of the council,” said Lee.
The proposal, which had previously been rejected by the council, was met with a varied response Tuesday.
“I don’t see myself supporting a survey, but I would be open to considering it,” said council member Al Forsman.
Council member John Lahtonen asked planning and zoning administrator Scott Kochendorfer whether he would be comfortable revising the 2016 version, to which Kochendorfer responded in the affirmative.
Council member Adam Bisbee inquired whether Ely could contract a consultant to only conduct a survey.
Lee responded, “Community engagement yields a ton of input and can result in significant changes to the way that priorities and projects are structured and prioritized within the plan.”
Council member Angela Campbell said, “I want to know what a consultant would charge, I think a comprehensive plan is so vital to our community going forward, no more just kind of patch up and make it look like we made some changes.”
Mayor Heidi Omerza said, “we can give you (the steering committee) a direction, but we can’t vote on anything tonight.”
