By Logan Wells, News Director | Logan@kymnradio.net
As the year comes to a close, the drafting of the city of Northfield’s Comprehensive Plan, or Northfield 2045, is also coming to an end. City leaders are asking for input from the public about the draft plan at a public hearing held Thursday night at 6pm. There is also an online form that residents can complete to provide feedback on the draft plan.
“This is the final check-in with the community,” said Jake Reilly, the city’s community development director. “We’ve had meaningful, productive conversations in community for more than a year and we’re ready to wrap this up.”
For the last 18 months, City staff, Steering Committee members, and the consultant team have evaluated data, held dozens of conversations with the community, and worked to accurately reflect those conversations in the draft, which serves as a 20-year guiding document and forms the foundation for future policies, plans, and land use regulations.
The comprehensive plan consists of a vision and guiding values section and four chapters focusing on different issues: Access, Sustainable economy, infrastructure, and implementation. The chapters focus on the community feedback collected over the last year and a half and include strategies going forward.
Here’s Steering Committee and Planning Commission Chair Betsey Buckheit explaining how the Comprehensive Plan was made:
“We started with the vision and values that was developed with the community and then that went to the steering committee, which was also a pretty diverse group of residents. And they really crafted that vision as our guiding values.” – Chair of the Northfield 2025 Steering Committee Betsey Buckheit on the KYMN Morning Show
Buckheit noted that the values are well agreed on and likely will not see any major changes and that the next step is too
“Now we have to take all the other recommendations and say OK. Do these come from that? This is supposed to be a plan for the community from the Community input, so we have to check all those off, and Yes, it matches the vision and values and will help carry those out.” – Chair of the Northfield 2025 Steering Committee Betsey Buckheit on the KYMN Morning Show
Buckheit noted that then the committee and staff work to adjust style issues and typos and ensure the plan is understandable for the community.
The public hearing is the final opportunity to give input on how the draft addresses the community’s vision related to housing, parks, economic development, and transportation. The Planning Commission will then make their recommendation to the City Council. The City Council is scheduled to adopt the plan in February 2025.
The Planning Commission public hearing takes place at 6pm, in the Council Chambers of City Hall.
Learn more about the Comprehensive Plan Here:
- The latest draft of the plan
- The city’s webpage about the plan detailing all the information about how the plan was created
- Feedback form for the plan (due before Thursday’s meeting)
- KYMN Radio’s monthly interview about the Comprehensive Plan:
- November 2024
- October 2024
- September 2024
- August 2024
- July 2024
- June 2024
- May 2024
- April 2024
- no interview for March
- February 2024
- January 2024 (beginning of regular monthly interviews)
- October 2023 (introduction interview)
