CIty seeks residents' visions for Plant City.
You have a chance to shape the City of Plant City’s direction for the next 10 years and beyond. City government is gearing up to put together its new comprehensive plan vision. If there are things you like, or don’t like, now is the chance to keep it going or to change things.
When the Municipal Home Rules Powers Act was passed in 1973, more power was turned over from the state to local governments. Along with that change, the state established legal requirements for local governments to establish 20+ year comprehensive plans to give consistent guidance to policymakers. The plans are also to be reviewed every seven to 10 years. Plant City completed its plan in 2009 and refreshed it in 2016. Since 2015, the population has grown by 15 percent, and jobs by 39 percent. The intervening years, and demographic changes since the last plan, make it the time for an overarching review and possible revision.
“Long-range planning can’t be forever, because things change, and you have to update,” Robyn Baker, City of Plant City Director of Planning and Zoning, said. “The purpose and requirement for this plan is because of the Home Ruling that allows us to govern ourselves. So, it’s a requirement of the state, but it should always be the desire of the municipality to make sure that it is up-to-date, because this document governs how we do our jobs. So, it is important it aligns with what actually happens in the city. What I mean by that is, it sets the level of service for water and sewer. It sets the level of service for transportation. It tells us how many acres of parks we have to have as we expand. So, it is knowledge and information we use every single day in our decisions from the top of the totem pole all the way to the bottom.”
The comprehensive plan vision prompts the community to produce a shared viewpoint on ideas, issues, and opportunities that impact the future of an area. Community participation throughout the plan process will help provide a foundation for policies that work toward the community’s ideal future. Baker has been, and will continue to, show up at community meetings to loop people in that opportunities are coming their way. The Plant City Chamber of Commerce, the Improvement League, and Rotary Club meetings will be upcoming stops for Baker to spread the word.
One of the city’s methods to gather input will be a visioning survey. It went live on August 18 and can be accessed on the city website by clicking the Facebook or Instagram icons. Those who prefer paper can contact the city and a survey will be mailed to them. It will take only five to seven minutes to complete. The period to fill out the survey will last through October 17. “They are the types of questions that help them prioritize what is important to people and their families, and what they need in their daily lives here in Plant City,” Baker said. “There are going to be a number of opportunities in this entire process, but this first one is going to help us get an overall feeling for what is important to people.” The survey asks questions like:
• What aspects of Plant City are most important to your quality of life?
• What is your opinion on the pace of development in Plant City over the last three years?
The city also set up a geofence, so that when people are within that boundary, they will see social media, banners, and ads relating to the survey. In another strategy to bring the survey to people’s attention, Planning and Zoning will host informational tables at community events such as the August and September Last Fridays in downtown.
Opinions from Plant Citians will make a difference in the direction the city takes. City staff will collate survey results, identify key items, and rank priorities based on the number of people who care about something and at what level. “Then we will start meeting with citizens in person,” Baker said. “We will have events, workshops to get even more detailed feedback that will ultimately help us funnel all of this into a vision statement….Everyone has a very large voice in this process, but only if they use it. This opens up so many opportunities for us as staff and as citizens to influence what happens next.” In addition to being able to direct the future of Plant City, another incentive to take the survey is the chance to enter a drawing to win one of three $100 Publix gift cards.
The results will be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan. “This is the document where it all happens,” Baker commented. “People come to the city commission, and are angry about things that are happening. This is your chance to voice that opinion. If we don’t say anything and we don’t become a part of that process, then in 10 years, when this vision takes off and it is being implemented, it is very difficult to say let’s change everything. This is the time to be a part of that process.”
