The "Bexley Land Use Master Plan Commission" had our second meeting last night. Among other things, we settled on a mission statement. You wouldn't maybe think a mission statement is so important, until you get 12 people in a room and realize you need a focal point - a raison d'etre - to help the group focus on the task at hand and keep their eye on the goal. So after a tenuous sketching out of a mission statement, and several revisions by various commission members, the official mission statement of the Bexley Land Use Master Plan Commission is this:
"The mission of the Bexley Land-use Commission is to develop a strategic planning framework and land-use vision for the City of Bexley that protects and enhances our unique community assets by:
"The mission of the Bexley Land-use Commission is to develop a strategic planning framework and land-use vision for the City of Bexley that protects and enhances our unique community assets by:
- Identifying and addressing short and long term planning options and land-use challenges.
- Recommending opportunities for civic improvement and beautification through land-use policies and initiatives."
Once we had penned a mission statement, the question was raised as to the name of the commission. Several members felt that the phrase "master plan" evoked images of large swathes of undeveloped suburban land that needed planning. Others felt the word "master" should be reserved for an overarching community plan that addresses all elements of a strategic community plan, not just land use.
Choosing the appropriate name is important in communicating to the community what we are trying to achieve. We'll be working on honing in on a commission name that adequately communicates the purpose behind the commission. In the meantime, myself and other commission members will be posting to this blog to communicate more about why we are engaging in a comprehensive land use planning process, how we will go about creating the plan, what it will look like, and how it will be enacted.
P.S. If you would like to keep posted on the progress of the commission and on the posts to this blog, I recommend subscribing to this blog's feed by clicking on the "subscribe to posts" link at the bottom of this page. If you're not familiar with blog/RSS feeds, see this FAQ - I recommend Google Reader as a good starting point. It and other RSS subscription services make it easy to stay up to date on regularly updated web content such as this blog.
- Ben Kessler
Ben Kessler is a member of the Bexley Land Use Strategy Commission as well as a council member of Bexley City Council. When he's not blogging about Bexley's Land Use Strategy he is a commercial real estate appraiser at Samuel D. Koon & Associates.
Choosing the appropriate name is important in communicating to the community what we are trying to achieve. We'll be working on honing in on a commission name that adequately communicates the purpose behind the commission. In the meantime, myself and other commission members will be posting to this blog to communicate more about why we are engaging in a comprehensive land use planning process, how we will go about creating the plan, what it will look like, and how it will be enacted.
P.S. If you would like to keep posted on the progress of the commission and on the posts to this blog, I recommend subscribing to this blog's feed by clicking on the "subscribe to posts" link at the bottom of this page. If you're not familiar with blog/RSS feeds, see this FAQ - I recommend Google Reader as a good starting point. It and other RSS subscription services make it easy to stay up to date on regularly updated web content such as this blog.
- Ben Kessler
Ben Kessler is a member of the Bexley Land Use Strategy Commission as well as a council member of Bexley City Council. When he's not blogging about Bexley's Land Use Strategy he is a commercial real estate appraiser at Samuel D. Koon & Associates.
No comments:
Post a Comment