The Centralia City Council Monday night approved a $25,000 contract with the South Central Regional Planning Commission to develop a new Comprehensive Plan for the city.
City Manager Kory Smith says a Comprehensive Plan should be completed every ten years and the last one in Centralia was completed in 2007.
“This is a plan forward for the city’s future essentially. One single vision rather than multiple visions. So that single vision with input from the whole municipality will guide us down the road. It is also beneficial when we make a grant request when the grant we are seeking is in line with that vision. So it makes a little bit of sense and allows future businesses that want to move to Centralia that we have a general goal in mind.”
The Grant Administrator at the Regional Planning Commission Luke Eastin explains the process that will be used.
“Goal and objectives. These are needs, this is what we need to do to solve future problems, use funding sources available to get those solutions done in a timely manner. And then bring in the public 6-7 months into the project with some public hearings. Have them review what we’ve done, comment on those things, how they view the community. Put all that together and somewhere at the end come up with a good vision for the city.”
The project is expected to take about a year to complete.
In other action, the council approved resolutions for temporary street closures for the Veteran’s Fourth of July Parade on July 4th and for the Locust Street Historical Fair on May 6th.
