Fort Smith comp plan committee reviews first draft of proposed plan
by October 17, 2014 11:27 am 83 views
The Fort Smith Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee received its first draft of the final proposed plan Thursday (Oct. 17) that will eventually be submitted to the Fort Smith Board of Directors for approval later this year.
The plan is more of a road map than a hard set of policies and initiatives for the city to undertake, said Committee Co-Chair John Cooley, but focuses on a few key areas.
"It certainly focuses on economic development and natural resources and transportation and infrastructure and all those things that, I think, make perfect sense in our world," he said, adding that the plan would only be as successful as the city and community groups working to implement the goals of the plan.
While much of the plan focuses on economic development and detailed planning for future growth of the city, including downtown development, an area missing from the plan is a strategy for dealing with the homeless population.
Committee member Mitch Minnick said "for the rest of the plan (to work), we must address the homeless."
Cooley said the group would spend the weekend reviewing the nearly 200 page draft document before a planned 11:30 a.m. Monday meeting with consultants from WRT, the consulting group assembling the comprehensive plan update for the city of Fort Smith.
Between Thursday and Monday's meeting, committee members will identify areas they would like to see changed or areas for inclusion of previously omitted information.
A final community open house is also scheduled for Tuesday, Oct. 21 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Riverfront Pavilion. At this event, the community will be able to review details of the plan and provide feedback before the draft is revised and presented to the Board of Directors for final approval, which could happen as early as November.