Cape council OKs spending $80,000 to update comprehensive plan

The Cape Girardeau City Council will spend up to $80,000 to update the city's comprehensive plan.

Council members approved an agreement Monday with Teska Associates Inc. of Evanston, Illinois. Teska will be assisted by Orion Planning + Design of Boulder, Colorado.

City planner Ryan Shrimplin said Tuesday the work to update the city's plan could take nine months to a year. The council adopted the current comprehensive plan Jan. 22, 2008.

Shrimplin said the planning effort will involve a "significant public process."

In an agenda report to the council, Shrimplin wrote the agreement "includes a robust public engagement process to ensure the plan update reflects the values and goals of Cape Girardeau's citizens and other stakeholders."

The scope of services includes interviews with key stakeholders such as developers, local businesses, property owners, school officials, Realtors and city representatives.

The planning process also includes an online community survey, a project website to inform the community and provide an opportunity for public input and some type of community event.

"We want citizens to feel they have ownership of the plan," Shrimplin said.

He said the updated plan will offer at least a 20-year vision for the future.

But as with the current plan, the city likely will revise the updated plan in about 10 years, Shrimplin added.

The comprehensive plan serves as "a blueprint for the future growth and development of the city," he said.

It provides a basis for policy decisions affecting such things as zoning, capital improvements and city services, he wrote in the agenda report.

Shrimplin said the comprehensive plan will look at land use and "where the city may grow in the future."

He said the plan also will focus on transportation, city utilities, parks and recreation, and police and fire operations.

Money from the city's general fund will be used to pay for the planning work, he said.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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