Destination:2030 / Decatur’s 2020 Strategic Plan

Details:

  • City of Decatur

  • Decatur, Georgia

Highlights:

  • 2021 Georgia Planning Association – Outstanding Planning Process for City of Decatur’s Destination 2030

  • Combined planning process for Strategic Plan, Comprehensive Plan, and Livable Centers Initiative
  • Extensive community engagement process
  • Focus on equity and racial justice, climate action, civic trust, affordable housing, mobility, and economic growth

Description:

The City of Decatur, Georgia has three main citywide plans: the Strategic Plan, the Comprehensive Plan, and the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI). In order to streamline the planning process, the City decided to update all three plans simultaneously, through a single, unified planning process called Destination: 2030 / Decatur’s 2020 Strategic Plan. TSW was chosen to lead the multidisciplinary team through this process.

The community engagement process began in 2019 and was designed to be inclusive and accessible to all residents. TSW developed collaborative tools such as Citizen Roundtables and a series of small group discussions (both in-person and online) to gather feedback and refine community opinions. The pandemic forced many of the in-person meetings to move to a virtual platform, which required the use of new tools and techniques, such as virtual Decatur 202s sessions, Pop-up Events, and Virtual Forums.

The community engagement process was well received, with over 792 participants, and was instrumental in shaping the policies and action items of the plan. These policies and action items are the most important component of the plan, as they serve as a road map for implementing the vision of Destination 2030.

The policies and action items are grouped into six main topics:

  • Equity & Racial Justice
  • Climate Action
  • Affordable Housing

  • Mobility

  • Economic Growth

Economic Growth. The action items have been designed to bridge multiple topics, as addressing one topic without considering its impact on others would be ineffective.

In summary, The City of Decatur embarked on a unified planning process Destination: 2030 / Decatur’s 2020 Strategic Plan, that aimed to update three main citywide plans, the Strategic Plan, the Comprehensive Plan, and the Livable Centers Initiative (LCI) simultaneously. TSW was chosen to lead the multidisciplinary team through this process. The community engagement process, which began in 2019, was designed to be inclusive and accessible to all residents and resulted in over 792 participants. It shaped the policies and action items of the plan which serves as a road map for implementing the vision of Destination 2030.