Editor’s Note: For the last 18 months, the City of Northfield has been drafting its Comprehensive Plan, which is the 20-year plan for the city. This story will be part of a series of stories breaking down the contents of the Comprehensive Plan before it is approved by the City Council later this spring.
PREVIOUS STORY (1/6/2025): What Is The Comprehensive Plan?
Today, we are focusing on how the Comprehensive Plan was made over the last year and a half. Creating the Comp Plan was split over several phases, the first phase which was Discovery, and spanned the summer of 2023. The first several events were community pop-up events to collect feedback at Third Thursdays, the Carleton Student Fair, and the Hispanic Heritage Fair. Planning Commission Chair Betsey Buckheit noted that this plan was built off of public input:
“I continue to stress that we developed this plan based on what we heard from the Community, and so the Steering committee was made up of residents, a diverse group, and they helped shape that into the vision you’ll see in a little bit and as well as the Planning Commission here framed that. So the vision and values and that we took that to different focus groups, whether that. The disability community, the Chamber of Commerce,and different Groups around town. We really wanted to reach out to rather than just wait for folks to come to us.” – Planning Commission Chair Betsey Buckheit at the 12/19/2024 Planning Commission Meeting
Phase 2 of the plan creation was called the Vision, which occurred during the fall of 2023 and winter of 2024. During this phase, the drafters of the plan collected feedback from the different city boards and commissions. These meetings include input from the Housing and Redevelopment Authority, Economic Development Authority, Environmental Quality Commission, and the Friends of Downtown, among other groups. Public input events continued during this time. The staff lead on the project, Community Development Director Jake Riley noted that they worked to engage with many different groups:
“And I say 20,000 just because, you know, we didn’t necessarily ask toddlers, but they thought well, we certainly did talk to lots of young people of all ages and and also talked to a lot of complimentary organizations. For example, one of the very first conversations I had. I got here was with the school district because. Their need for students is an important component of how the city develops and where it’s going as well.” – Community Development Director Jake Riley on the KYMN Morning Show
In the spring, phase 3 of the plan was implemented, which was the analysis phase and included continuing to receive public and organizational input and feedback. A Steering Committee was formed to take the public input and begin forming a plan. Also, during this time, the city began incorporating several plans to form a community profile with information like housing and employment.
This fall, the steering committee has begun working to collect feedback from the public on the plan overall. The planning commission is still seeking input from the public about the plan. You can comment online or attend the Planning Commission meeting on Thursday, January 16th.
“People can comment anytime on the city website. There’s a page open with Questions and things to fill out about the comprehensive plan and that will be open through the next public hearing at our January meeting. And so anytime 24/7, you can come in that way as well as coming to the public hearing or coming to other meetings and giving your comments.” – Planning Commission Chair Betsey Buckhiet on the KYMN Morning Show
Additional Resources:
