Title
Comprehensive Plan / Action Plan
Recommended Action
City Manager Recommendation:
Receive briefing from staff; provide guidance on next steps.
Report
Issue:
Staff has started work on a Draft Action Plan to carry out the goals and policies in the Comprehensive Plan. The purpose of this agenda item is to provide LUEC members with an update and receive direction as needed on draft performance measures, public participation concepts, and an updated project timeline.
Staff Contact:
Stacey Ray, Associate Planner, 360.753.8046
Presenter(s):
Stacey Ray, Associate Planner, Community Planning and Development
Background and Analysis:
This year Olympia is adopting a new Comprehensive Plan with updated goals and policies that reflect our community's vision. Early in the Imagine Olympia process, the City Council identified a vital next step: ensure the goals and policies become reality and have real "on the ground" impact by creating an "Action Plan."
In November 2013, LUEC provided staff with direction to begin work on an Action Plan, and some initial draft concepts were reviewed and approved by the full City Council at their 2013 retreat in January. Staff returned to LUEC in February to introduce the interdepartmental staff team that was formed to develop the Action Plan and receive additional guidance and feedback on a new brand: "Imagine Olympia | Take Action".
In April, LUEC provided staff with guidance on public participation and a refined structure for the Action Plan designed around five key Action Areas: Downtown, Neighborhoods, Economy, Environment, and Community. LUEC's direction to staff was to move forward with a comprehensive and collaborative approach to participation including focus groups, community meetings, and the online platform Olyspeaks! Additionally, LUEC approved summaries that characterize each of the five Action Areas and capture the goals and policies from the Comprehensive Plan.
Performance Measures
Since having received direction from LUEC in April, staff has developed a draft set of performance measures for the Action Plan. Performance measures represent a variety of data the City or a community partner will collect to help us better understand the progress we are making in implementing the goals and policies in the Comprehensive Plan.
When reviewed on a regular basis, our performance measures will provide valuable information on whether or not the actions in the Action Plan are moving us closer to our goals. If yes, measures can help us share stories of success to attract community momentum, involvement, and energy. If no, we will have the information needed to consider what new or difference actions can be taken to more effectively 'move the needle' on our measures.
Performance Measure Criteria
There is an incredible amount of data available community-wide from which to select performance measures for the Action Plan. To ensure an effective selection process, staff reviewed current best practices in improving organizational performance and sought guidance from the Washington State Department of Commerce Center for Local Government Performance to identify key considerations for developing effective performance measures.
That research led to development of a Performance Measure Criteria Checklist (Attachment A) tailored to Olympia's unique needs. In June, LUEC directed staff to move forward with using the checklist to identify an initial list of potential performance measures. The checklist helped ensure that each potential measure was methodically selected and reviewed against the following criteria:
· Is the performance measure significant and meaningful? Does this measure help us determine if we are achieving the goals and policies identified in the Comprehensive Plan, and is the data meaningful for making decisions?
· Is the performance measure understandable? Does the measure tell a clear and easy-to-understand story?
· Can the City or a community partner impact the performance measure? Does the City or a community partner have a significant enough impact over the measure that we can make a difference in what is reflected by the data?
· Is the data available long-term? Can the measure be replicated and maintained by the City if the original owner of the data is no longer available?
· Are the five 'Action Areas' represented in a balanced way? Are there any significant Comprehensive goals and policies that are not represented by the list of draft performance measures?
Draft Performance Measures
Using the Comprehensive Plan goals and policies and the Performance Measure Criteria Checklist, staff has identified 24 potential performance measures (Attachment B) to be included in the Draft Action Plan.
Additionally, highlighted for each draft measure in the attached table is which of the twenty Action Area goals the measure demonstrates progress towards achieving. Those linkages are critical to understanding if the measures we select accurately reflect what we aim to accomplish in the Comprehensive Plan.
While staff has included some detail for each measure, they are in draft form with more specificity to be determined. For example, volunteer hours may be measured as a total number of hours or as number of hours per household; which method we will has not been finalized. Some measures may need further investigation into what data is readily available, what options we have for graphically representing the measure, and what feedback is received from community members.
Next Steps: Performance Measures, Action Items and Public Participation
Staff has already begun identifying draft actions for the Action Plan; the next step after establishing performance measures. The action items are predominantly being drawn from the goals and policies in the Draft Comprehensive Plan currently under review by the City Council, but also from the incredible amount of community input received during Imagine Olympia. Other sources for draft actions include existing department work plans, Master Plans, and Council goals.
In addition to identifying draft actions, staff proposes for LUEC's consideration that the next steps in development of the Action Plan include holding a series of focus meetings this fall with key partners, potential partners, and community members. The focus meetings will serve to provide staff and LUEC with targeted feedback on the draft performance measures and draft actions.
Once focus meeting input is collected and integrated into the draft measures and actions, staff proposes returning to LUEC in October to review what was heard and seek further direction on issuing a draft Action Plan in January 2015.
Options:
1. Direct staff to move forward in hosting a series of focus meetings to seek feedback on the draft list of performance measures (Attachment B) and draft action items (to be identified by staff).
2. Direct staff to move forward in hosting a series of focus meetings to seek feedback on the draft list of performance measures with revisions as directed by LUEC and draft action items (to be identified by staff).
3. Direct staff to move forward in hosting a series of focus meetings to seek feedback on a draft list of performance measures; however, return in September to review with LUEC draft actions prior to the focus meetings.
4. Direct staff to not move forward in hosting a series of focus meetings; instead, with direction from LUEC, release a complete draft Action Plan in fall 2014.