Ten year update, 2016

Decatur’s primary planning document, the Strategic Plan, affirms our city’s big picture vision, defines our principles, and lays out a decade-long task list for city leaders, staff, and citizens. It’s completed in ten year increments and is due to be updated in 2020. Each year, all departmental goals and budgets are tied directly to the plan and its objectives.

A variety of Specialized Plans — Town Center Plan, Community Transportation Plan, PATH Connectivity Plan, etc. — have also been created to guide, respond to, or otherwise expand upon specific, big picture tasks within the Strategic Plan.

Complementing these efforts, the Comprehensive Plan is a process required by the state of Georgia to ensure that all communities achieve minimum planning standards and procedures, especially as they relate to physical infrastructure and growth. Because Decatur’s existing culture of planning far exceeds what’s mandated by the state, we use the Comprehensive Plan process as an opportunity to do a midterm check-up of our larger strategic goals and accomplishments.

Contributing online, at public meetings, or one-on-one with city staff, nearly 1,500 residents provided all manner of input and ideas to the plan’s development, which ran from March to August, 2016. Everything associated with the process can be reviewed here.