The Geneva City Council approved a new strategic plan on Monday that outlines the city’s vision and goals, which include purposeful growth and environmental stewardship, for the next five years.
The Geneva 2030 Strategic Plan was created over 12 months using community input gathered through surveys, focus groups, individual interviews and a community forum, according to the plan. From that input, the city’s Strategic Plan Advisory Committee developed six goals that City Council will pick from to set each year’s priorities.
The plan both communicates a “collective vision” for the city’s future and is a “living and dynamic starting point for policy conversation and actionable implementation for both City Council and city staff,” Strategic Plan Advisory Committee Chair Winnie Frankel told City Council members at Monday’s special meeting.
The plan sets six broad goals for the city to work towards by 2030: For the city to have strong governance; inform and educate residents; have purposeful growth and economic vitality; be a safe, active and welcoming community; be a steward of its environment and natural resources; and have quality infrastructure and services.
For each goal, the plan also outlines a number of desired outcomes, suggested actions that could lead to those outcomes and “key outcome indicators” to track progress towards those outcomes.
Under the purposeful growth and economic vitality goal, for example, the plan wants the city to have a diverse and resilient economy. To achieve this, the plan suggests that the city start a grant program supporting tourism and economic development and work with its regional partners to create a marketing campaign, among other actions.
To mark progress towards that outcome, the plan suggests tracking hotel and sales tax collections, and progress towards the completion of the city’s Southeast Master Plan.
The plan also wants the city to have a vibrant downtown and new development or redevelopment to work towards the city’s economic goals.
Another of the Geneva 2030 Strategic Plan’s goals, environmental stewardship, would be achieved through sustainable city policies and practices, a healthy parkway tree canopy and residents actively working with the city to conserve resources, according to the plan.
Recommended actions towards these outcomes include developing a policy for using hybrid or electric vehicles in the city’s fleet, considering LED street lighting standards and setting targets for the number of customers with solar panels.
To achieve its goal of a safe, active and welcoming community, the plan recommends working towards having improved bike and pedestrian paths, diverse housing options and a sense of belonging among city residents.
Recommended actions to achieve those outcomes include creating bilingual options for city communications and updating city building regulations to meet housing market demands, among others.
Under other goals, the plan also recommends creating long-term plans for the city’s finances and facilities, developing guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence and comparing Geneva’s cost of services to other cities.
The plan’s overall goals and outcomes are left somewhat vague so that the City Council can set its own priorities each year based on the plan’s goals, officials said at the meeting Monday.
At the meeting, City Council members made a number of suggestions to improve the plan, from changing terminology to adding in new metrics to track progress. After the discussion, the plan was approved.
The Strategic Plan Advisory Committee’s next step is to work with city staff to update the strategic plan website with information from the newly approved plan, according to Assistant City Administrator Benjamin McCready.
He said the website will share “more expansive explanations, updated actions and performance indicator data” with the City Council and the community on a regular basis.
rsmith@chicagotribune.com
