Concerned residents spent earl Friday evening listening and providing input to the city’s five-year strategic plan.
The strategic plan, last updated in March 2021, sets out the city’s overall strategic goals and objectives for the next five years.
“The Strategic Plan serves as a communication tool, sets city priorities, and serves as a guide to the future,” said Abismael Abreu, the city’s Strategic Initiatives Administrator.
The draft plan was debuted to residents attending the meeting, even before City Council members had seen the document. Four major goals were outlined: Diverse,
innovative, and magnetic economic development; effective community safety; high
performing government; and a reliable transportation network.
The process that yielded the draft plan started on Feb. 21st, 2024, with a Community Visioning Session, and also an online community survey that was open until March 11.
From these goals, several objectives will be developed for the implementation of each goal. From these goals and objectives, once approved by the City Council, individual city departments, such as Police and Fire/rescue, will adapt these goals and objectives to their individual functions. This then drives the city’s budget process for the successive year.
Sheryl Trent, a consultant from SBrand Solutions, was on hand to facilitate the discussion by residents to make input into the plan. As part of the discussion, she emphasized the city’s concerns in the areas of using technology to improve city processes, transportation challenges, and the competition the city faces as an employer located in the greater Orlando metro area.
Perennial concerns about traffic volume and flow and residential growth were the primary inputs from residents in attendance and online. Concerning traffic, residents wanted to see greater cooperation between the city and Osceola County on the county roads that run through St. Cloud, with the state for U.S. Highway 192, and with Lynx to improve public transportation options in the city. There was also a call for greater transparency and improvement in communications from the city to its residents.
The draft plan is scheduled for review at a City Council Workshop Thursday, and formally approved at a subsequent council meeting, tentatively in June.
For more information on the City of St. Cloud’s Strategic Planning Process and future updates, see https://bit.ly/3JWPshp
