Waite Park Officials Revisiting Comprehensive, Strategic Plans

WAITE PARK -- Waite Park officials are revisiting their conversations surrounding the city's comprehensive plan.

Talks regarding the comprehensive plan began last year, but were put on hold due to the pandemic.

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City Administrator Shaunna Johnson says because of the impacts brought on by the pandemic, they felt it would be a good idea to combine their comprehensive planning with their strategic plan.

The strategic plan is a broader set of goals, what the community wants and gives guidance and direction. The comprehensive plan will focus more on the development side of things, but take a lot of the components from the strategic plan.

Johnson says typically these plans are separate but they recognized the two plans would provide some framework on how to move forward given the impacts by the pandemic.

During Monday's city council meeting, the council will look to approve hiring two consultants to help with the process to incorporate both aspects of the strategic and comprehensive planning.

It's a matter of just looking at some of the Census data and some of our statistics about our own community and allowing our community to have insight and input in the direction they like to see the community go in the future. That will also help us guide future development as well.

Both Perme and Peterson Associates and SEH are the two consultants the council will consider hiring for this process.

Proposed costs for Perme and Peterson is roughly $27,500 and SEH's proposed cost is about $96,000. Costs would be paid for using ARPA funds.

Johnson says with these plans, the city hopes to created a vision that is community driven and guide city officials on future development.

If approved, the plans are expected to be implemented in 2023-2032.