Laura Bergey and Landon Jones of Guernsey explained the purpose and process of creating a comprehensive city plan, and discussed the public participation platform of Onward Chickasha.The Rotary Club of Chickasha met Thursday, March 23, 2023.
February's Students of the Month were in attendance—7th graders Marissa and Jaden, and 8th graders Lily and Carter. They were accompanied by Counselor Dawnshaye Davis.
As Rotarian of the Day, David Sikes introduced the speakers, Laura Bergey and Landon Jones of Guernsey. Guernsey is an architecture, construction, and consulting firm based in Oklahoma City. Bergey and Jones are community planners and consultants who are working with the City of Chickasha to create a new comprehensive plan ("comp plan"). They titled their presentation "Comp Plan 101".
Laura Bergey, left, and Landon Jones.
A comp plan for a city is "a vision for the future". It looks at current conditions and trends and forms plans for the future. The goal is to unite the community under one vision, such that government efforts can be directly focused on the needs of the community. As part of the process, the planners set benchmarks and goals and ultimately make policy recommendations towards those ends.
Bergey and Jones described the creation of a comp plan as a five-tiered pyramid. The base is identifying the community vision, the first phase which has just concluded. The subsequent phases are setting goals, creating a future land use map, changing policies where needed, and then a final strategy. Guernsey describes their process under six headings: Ignite, Identify, Inspire, Innovate, Integrate, and Implement.
It is important to have constant engagement throughout the process, which is the purpose of the Onward Chickasha campaign and platform. Onward Chickasha includes survey and discussion forums that allow the public to give their input as to what the comprehensive plan should look like. It is a lengthy process, but ultimately provides a unified plan that can guide the community for the next ten to twenty years.
Lunch was provided by Chicken Express.