Overview

A community-driven opportunity to map out priorities, policies, and projects for the next ten years.

As we look towards Decatur’s next decade, we’re applying our best thinking to a guide for making our city an even better place to live, work, and play.

That guiding framework for the future is Decatur’s Strategic Plan. We come together to update it every 10 years. And now’s the time to chart our way towards 2030.

Over the course of 2020 and into 2021, we’ll be tapping the expertise of residents, businesses, City staff, the project consultant team, and others. There will be conversations of all sorts, big and small, in a variety of forums. Everyone’s invited to participate.

The process begins with the Citizen Roundtables, a series of small group discussions where Decatur neighbors drill down on their ambitions and concerns. In 2010, over 600 people committed their time and enthusiasm to these conversations. This time around, we have 800.

As we progress, we’ll spot gaps we have to fill with new knowledge and competing ideas we have to reconcile. Our goal at the end is an ambitious Plan that has earned respect for the process that produced it and confidence in the future it addresses.

To make the most of this once-in-a-decade opportunity, we’ll also be aligning two other important guiding documents – Decatur’s Comprehensive Plan and our LCI (Livable Centers Initiative) update – with the new Strategic Plan, and then compiling them all in one fully integrated document.

The Roundtables have concluded. The themes that emerged are now being tested through our Virtual Forums, giving previous participants an opportunity to elaborate on their input and those new to the process to get their thoughts and ideas into the mix. Finally, the Decatur 202 sessions will provide a forum for addressing competing priorities, inspiring efforts to resolve conflicts and to build support for effective decision-making.