The Morganton City Council has recently, after an almost two year process, approved the IMAGINE Morganton 2040 Comprehensive Plan. The comprehensive plan sets a vision for the future of Morganton and provides structure for decisions made on land use and development matters.
To recap, the IMAGINE Morganton 2040 is an update to the Cityโs previous comprehensive plan, Mission 2030. Mission 2030 was developed in 2008 and was approved by City Council in 2009. Our updated comprehensive plan provides a renewed vision for the future of the community along with the steps needed to make that vision a reality. The plan places a strong emphasis on implementation to guide the Cityโs near and long-term decision-making and investment.
The City contracted with Kimley-Horn and Associates to help create the plan and guide us through the steps of building awareness of the project, collecting community input, and structuring planning principles and strategies around the input received from the community. The City implemented an advisory committee of 28 members that provided detailed comments throughout the process, along with focus groups of many local stakeholders, as part of a wide-ranging public input campaign, resulting in over 3,000 written comments and 8,000 visits to the project website. As a result, the City can be confident that the plan represents the views of those that live, work and play in Morganton.
IMAGINE Morganton 2040 will be used as the framework over the next 15+ years to guide decision-making related to a variety of important topics, such as development, investments in infrastructure, zoning, and preservation of community character.
The plan consists of six different sections including an introduction, community characteristics, vision and planning principles, land use strategy, policy framework and call to action. The planning principles reflect the unique circumstances facing Morganton and offer an organizing structure for how the City can work toward achieving its vision. These eight principles are broken down into more detail in the Policy Framework section of the plan:
- GROW - IMAGINE a proactive approach toward future growth.
- THRIVE - IMAGINE a resilient local economy.
- ACTIVATE - IMAGINE a vibrant and active downtown.
- EMBRACE - IMAGINE a distinctive and welcoming city.
- LIVE - IMAGINE a range of housing choices.
- MOVE - IMAGINE a safe and balanced transportation network.
- PRESERVE - IMAGINE a built environment in harmony with Natureโs Playground.
- PLAN - IMAGINE a foundation of informed decision-making.
In the plan you can see the Conceptual Growth Strategy that features a map that reflects current trends and influences on future development, as well as feedback received from the community, stakeholders, City staff, Planning and Zoning Commission, and City Council. The conceptual growth strategy serves as the first glimpse of how Morgantonโs approach toward land use can fulfill the intent of the vision and planning principles.
The Future Land Use Strategy is also part of the comprehensive plan. The future land use strategy adds a critical layer of detail to describe Morgantonโs preferred mix of land uses. The future land use strategy is communicated in a map created using a set of future land use classifications. This map serves as a guide for staff and elected officials in making rezoning and other decisions on growth and development.
The Call to Action is key to implementing the plan, detailing 17 strategies and 63 action steps to take to move the City toward the vision. The action steps are key to ensuring the planโs goals and strategies are carried out over the next 15 years.
The IMAGINE Morganton 2040 Comprehensive Land Use Plan is considered a living document, with expectations that modifications may be made in the future, with a State requirement to periodically review and update the plan.
City Manager Sally Sandy said, โThis has been a very long and thought out process involving so many people. Throughout the process of creating the plan there were more than 22,000 individual data points that were collected and more than 1,100 hours of investment into the project. This goes to show that this plan was not created only by City staff, but by our community. It represents what our community wants to invest in and what they want the future of Morganton to look like.โ
Development and Design Director Wendy Smith said, โThis was a great process to experience and we are so grateful to all of our community who came out to voice their opinions. Even though this is the end of creating the comprehensive plan, we know it will be the start of so many exciting projects.โ
For those who would like to see the approved plan, visit www.engagekh.com/im2040.