 Hi, welcome to the latest edition of Junction City News. I am Regina Mahoney, the city manager for the city of Essex Junction. And I have with me this afternoon Ashley Snellenberger, who is the city's communications and strategic initiatives director. Welcome Ashley. Thank you. So we are going to be talking about the strategic plan, strategic action plan that the city is working on. We have talked about this a few times already, but really looking to this process to help us guide our future steps in the city. So really want to get the word out and let folks know where we are at with the process. So can you give us a bit of a reminder of what this project is about? Sure. So our city council wanted us to begin looking at a vision and strategic action plan now that we are officially a city. And so we hired a consultant to help us out with this process and we started working on this process back in September. It really has two steps to it. The first is creating a community vision that reflects some of our core values and some of the trends happening in the city and in the community and the country is large. And then it kind of imagines what we would like our future to look like. The second part of it is the strategic action plan, which is setting our priorities for the next five years. And so this project will run until February 2024. So we're right about in the middle of the process and we've already started working on some of it with our community survey that we put out to everybody and the think tank workshops that we held as well. Awesome. Great. Okay. So the community survey. What was some of the feedback we received from the residents? So we launched the survey in October and had about 450 people respond to our survey, which was great. So part of the main questions that we were asking people was their satisfaction living and working in the city of Essex Junction. So we asked them how satisfied they were about living and working in Essex Junction and then if they thought that the city offered future opportunities for them to grow and thrive in the city. And so from this graph you can see that the majority of people are satisfied with living and working in the city and they feel that the city offered those future opportunities for them. Awesome. So those are, that's why the circles are larger in the top right corner. That's correct. The second really big second questions that we asked was about our current direction and ability to adapt within the city. So we asked the respondents how satisfied they were with the way that the city was changing and the current overall direction that we were headed. And then we asked them if they were satisfied or concerned about the ability for the city to adapt to changes. And so from this graph you can see that mainly a good number of their responses were satisfied with the direction that they were headed and the ability to adapt. But we do have some circles in the large, in the middle of the graph that kind of indicates that there might be some concern and a lot of that we found was with change. And so that was one of our big drive impactors is the, you know, change in the direction that it's headed and how quickly it's changing. And so that's our valid concerns within any community I feel like. But it was good for us to have those responses. Yeah. And I think that's good insight that, you know, as extension and the county as a whole are changing. We are growing. We have a big housing need. And so that change can be inevitable whether you want it to happen or not. So I think it's going to be great for this process to help us as a community guide what that change looks like. So that was the big main changes. The next thing that we had was our think tank workshops. So our think tank workshop was divided into two days. We did that on November 2nd and 4th. And they lasted for about two hours each time that we had that. And then so we broke day one. Basically we started out talking about what are some global trends that are affecting the city of S-Extension, whether that's the climate change that we can see taking place today or other things like population growth and people moving into different parts of Vermont or moving from the south to the north. So there was lots of different trends that are affecting globally, nationally, that we talked about. And then we talked about how that might affect the city of S-Extension in the future. We then asked the participants to identify some key drivers. And these are the things that are most likely to shape the city within the future. And so our residents that participated in this identified 20 key drivers. And they rated these key drivers then on a scale of the size and impact on the economic approach and the community approach. And so these are the 20 drivers that the residents came up with who participated in the think tank. And as you can see, it's a varied group from housing to traffic congestion and transportation to the ability to adapt and the fear of change. So some of those things that we already had seen in the survey also came up within the think tank as well. And so we're definitely seeing some trends within this survey and think tank workshop that we did. Awesome. Okay. So that was a lot of content to get through day one on the think tank. What took place on the second day? So day two, we started by looking at the rankings that they did of those key drivers. So where did everybody feel that were the most important economically and in the community wise and what were the bigger key drivers? And then we asked them to based off of those drivers and some scenarios to develop some scenarios for it. And we'll get back into that a little bit later. But first off, let me show you guys what they came up with with their rankings. So the first one is our economic approach. And the top four things that came out of that was the lack of economic opportunity, escalating cost of living, housing constraints and development and then transportation. And so those were the key big things that they thought economically would be the most impact within the city. The other one was our community evolution. And they had three that were the top for that and that was the housing constraints and development, the lack of interpersonal engagement and then the escalating cost of living. So a little bit of those overlapped on both of those different sections. And then some of them were a little different. So those are our big key drivers that were shaping what we felt were community and the economy. And then we asked them to, they were presented with this scenario metrics. So this matrix basically breaks it down from our community evolution, which starts off with a strong feeling of protecting and preserving what we currently have and moves on into adapting and growing. And that's really big changes. And then on the vertical act us, we have a community led approach, which is really the community is taking on the approach to economic development. And then we have a market led approach where developers are driving the initiatives of investment within the city when it comes to economic development. So based off these different quadrants of this matrix, we divided everybody up into four groups and we asked them to describe what the characteristics of the city would look like in those scenarios. So if it was scenario A, it was their protecting, preserving and community led. If it was scenario B, community led, and then adapt and grow, scenario C, adapt and grow and market led, and then scenario D, preserve and protect, market led. And so we divided them up. We asked them to come up with what these characteristics of the city would look like. We then asked them to talk about some headlines or events that might be taking place in the city, whether that was in 2025, 2030, 2035, and then finally give their different scenarios a name. So they all had the opportunity to name their scenarios. Awesome. Okay. So let's take a look at each of those scenarios and what the groups came up with. Can you tell us about each of them? Sure. So the first scenario was scenario A. They named their group, our village, our voice. And this was our community led and protected and preserved quadrant. And so really the group of respondents really felt that this would be a less diverse population. They felt that a lot of the people that would be remoting or commuting to work instead of working in the city. A lot of this was, since it's that preserve and protect, it was really on emphasis of that what we have currently in the village and protecting and those traditional feel. They wanted to slow down growth with this, because again, this is not the change population. And they also wanted to limit the density. So we're not growing or expanding within this one. And then finally they felt that there would be some engagement with the community, but it wouldn't be as robust as it could be. Okay. Interesting. All right. And then what did group B think? So group B is our community representation model. It was the community led and adapt and grow model. So this is the one with the most change and the most community responsive and both being involved, community involvement, I should say. So they thought that this group would be very diverse within the community. We'd have lots more diversity in our community. We'd have lots of different amenities and activities that people could participate in. It would be a community led economic approach instead of the market led. So it would allow us to grow very quickly and would encourage growth within the city. And then the communication engagement would be very strong with this. This would be something that the community would take on lots of projects. They would be really doing a lot of the work moving forward, whether that's economically or community wise. And so it would be a very appealing place for people to live in. So that was their representation of scenario being. Okay. Great. All right. So moving halfway around the quadrant there. So now down to the bottom, group C. Group C was our Zillow Junction Leads Economic Growth Group. This was our adapt and grow, which lots of change, and then our market led development. And so they felt that this would be very developer or investor driven within any of our economic priorities. They didn't feel that there would be a social cohesion amongst the group, that there would be not that community connectivity that really was there in some of the other groups. They really felt that because of this, housing would become no longer affordable for the majority of people living in our community. And because of that would then lead to less diversity within our community as well, because they wouldn't be able to afford those properties. And then they really felt that those who live in the city would have to work elsewhere or would be remote working. So that would be not people working in our community. Okay. All right. And group D, the final group. And the final group is Essex Junction, the new Shelburne. And so this is our protect and preserve and market led group. They felt that obviously this would be very market traditionally led by the market approach to economic development. They felt that a lot of the people who would be moving into the city would be people who were newcomers, who were very fluent, or people who were having second vacation homes. And then the people who were still there, written being really able to afford to live within the community and probably would be looking for elsewhere to live. So we wouldn't have a lot of the same people living in the community. We would have no ethnic diversity within this quadrant. And then while the city would be, you know, very attractive, we're not going to have that growth that we expect with some of the other groups. And then again, loss of our community. So we'll have kind of a tension between the newcomers who are moving in from different locations and the people who are still trying to stay and live in the city. And those ideas probably might not mesh as well with what, how they want to move within the community. So we feel there might be some friction within that quadrant if that was to come. Okay. Okay. So one thing just to remind folks of this, the strategic planning process is not, or I should say the scenario planning process is not in any way shape or form an actual representation of what our future will hold. It's an exercise to help the community understand what are the positive aspects and which direction that you might want to go in. So just to be clear, that summary was the result of that exercise. And so what happened next with that result? So after all of these, the different groups presented to us, and then they were able to, at the end of the day, to decide what would be their preferred future, their expected future, and their least desired future. So we asked everybody to take this quadrant and then mark each of their, like, square where they said would be their least, their expected, or their preferred future. So we have some heat maps to show you. The first one is our least desired future. So the majority of the participants did not like scenario D. They thought that was the most undesirable option for the city moving forward. And so this was the one that they really did not, and it was a strong majority of people who did not like this scenario. The expected future, which is this next slide, is where we think that we are most likely to happen if no change is made. So if we stay on the same course that we are right now, this is where people expect us to be. And as you can see, some of the people thought scenario D would be where we are, and then it starts to move into scenario C a little bit. So there was kind of a split between scenario D and scenario C. If we make no changes whatsoever, this is their expected future for our community. Okay, and I think that would mean, like we talked about earlier, change will happen. It's a matter of whether we influence, right? So that is sort of like a, if we don't influence, that's the change that will come. That's the expected change that will come, exactly. And then the final heat map is our preferred future. The future that we, as the representatives that were there at the think tank, would like to see our community moving forward. And they overwhelmingly preferred the community representative model, which was scenario B. And so you can see from that heat map that they really were moving forward towards that preferred future. And so now, as we move forward this process, it's how do we move from that expected future into this preferred future. And so that's what we'll be looking at when we start talking about our strategic action plan. And those actions will move us forward to that preferred future. Right. And that quadrant, just in a quick summary again, is some acknowledgement that we will adapt to grow, not dig deep in our heels and stay just as it is. But really community led. So we're really influencing policy wise how we get to the future that we want. That's exactly right. And so we really want our community to be involved. That was one of their big things. And that's from the government perspective, from leading things within our community, whether that's initiatives or whatever their expectation and outcomes are wanting to be. That's what that community driven is instead of our traditional method, which is our market. So, yeah, great. Okay. So where can people find out about what we just summarize for folks and get some more information about that? Yes. So as always, we keep telling everybody to go back to the project portal. We will be publishing the think tank report, which has all of this information that we talked about tonight on our project portal. We're doing some last minute tweaks on it and that's supposed to be published this week. So look for that. We'll be sending out some emails about that and publishing it obviously on all of our media channels, our website, our Facebook and front porch forum. But we'll also obviously be posting everything to our project portal and that's where we want to encourage everybody to go. The project portal also has our survey right now, so you can go on and actually see every response that we received from the survey and what people were saying within the survey. We also have open answer questions and so you can see exactly what everybody was telling us in that survey. And then this information that we have from our think tank report will then be used to develop our pillars. And so those are our core values, the key priorities that we're going to be focusing on moving forward within our strategic action plan. Awesome. Okay. So the project keeps going until February 2024. Can you tell our viewers what the next steps in the process will be? So we have a big month of January plan for everyone. We've got basically two projects going on the month of January. So we do have our strategic planning process that's going on, but we're also in the middle of budget planning and getting ready for annual meeting. And so we have decided to combine two of these events so that we're not asking people to come out for a bunch of different events the month of January. So January 27th, which is a Saturday, we have a community open house and budget discussion. And so the day will start out with a community open house where you can come and give feedback on the strategic plan. The idea is to come spend five to 15 minutes giving us some feedback and then turn around and go about the rest of your day. If you're interested in more information on our budget, you can obviously stay. We're planning on having a community meal that day and putting out information about our budget. And then we'll end the day with more opportunity for strategic planning. And so you can come in obviously during the afternoon as well and give feedback. So again, it's a come and go event. It's not something where you come in and you're going to have to spend an hour or two unless you want to hear more about the budget. But this is an opportunity, like we said, for us to get feedback from multiple projects. Great. And then after that, we have some focus group sessions. That's going to be January 29th and 30th. That's Monday and Tuesday. Those will be throughout the day on both of those days. And we'll be going over to the different pillars and asking people to give us feedback on those pillars for our action items. So what can we do to accomplish these different pillars? And then finally, we'll be putting out a community survey number two in February. And this will allow us to get some feedback on some of those action items and those pillars to see if this is the direction that we're all going in the right direction and to make sure that we're hitting all the areas that we need to within those pillars. After the consultants have combined all of that information, they will then be writing our strategic action plan report. And that report will then be given to our city council and presented to our city council and presented to our community. And then we'll start moving forward on that action plan. Awesome. So it's thank you for combining those two big things that we're working on right now into one. And so the interesting thing I think for us right now is that the strategic planning process and this action plan that comes out of this work will really help us build budgets going forward. And right now we're actively working on the FY25 budget and that will probably move a little faster than getting the final product from this action plan. But it'll be helpful to see how this action plan helps us really establish annual work programs for the city and move forward with that input. So it's great that we've had an opportunity to get feedback from our community and really ask what are the priorities that we want to be moving forward. We've had a lot of ask. And so I know that that's something that our city councilors have, our staff has. And so in our community is asking for. And so we hope that with the strategic plan we can accomplish some of those priorities and start moving along in that process in a reasonable way. We can't do everything in year one. So this is a five year. We just want to make sure that we really say that this is a five year plan. And so we hope that we can accomplish all of those activities in the next five years. Awesome. Great. Is there anything else you would like to add? I will say be checking out your mail for an invitation on the community open house and budget discussions. We will be sending that out in the beginning of the new year. We'll also be posting a lot of information about all of our upcoming events after the new year. So be sure to check out the project portal and our, of course, our website, social media and front porch forum for all of this information. We hope that everyone who has already participated in the strategic plan will continue to participate. And for those who haven't had an opportunity to participate, please take the opportunity to participate in these upcoming events and give our feedback, especially within the priorities and action items. Because those are, I think, the funner of the project portion. So we hope that everybody will participate in those projects coming up. Awesome. That is great. OK. So thanks so much for joining me. That is most of our time today. Hopefully, folks will continue to tune in for our monthly Junction City News and hope everybody gets home safely today. Depending on when you watch this, you may not know, but we're back in a significant rain and flooding event today here in Vermont. So hope everybody gets home safe and happy holidays to everybody. Thank you.