CONO Celebrates Strategic Planning Milestone
CONO is proud to announce our significant participation in the strategic planning process, a key component of our community advocacy efforts. Our dedicated staff attended all meetings and supported public events, showcasing our commitment to the development and future of Colorado Springs.
Highlighting our community engagement, we are thrilled to report that we had two Neighborhood University (NU) alumni on the committee, in addition to our CONO staff. This involvement extended through the Neighborhood Networks, which contributed via meetings with district representatives, ensuring broad input from various community sectors.
Strategic Plan: A Vision for 2024-2028
The 2024-2028 Citywide Strategic Plan serves as the long-term vision for the future direction of the City. It is founded on well-defined goals, strategic objectives and priorities, and measurable outcomes. This plan establishes organizational performance data and maintains a continuous engagement loop with the community and city employees to inform city budgetary and policy decision-making.
Annually, under the Strategic Plan, the City will create a Strategic Doing Framework. This framework provides a short-term action plan to intentionally advance the visionary community ideas outlined in the 4-year Strategic Plan into yearly action-oriented collaborations that result in measurable outcomes. These plans are the result of countless hours of community engagement, thoughtful discussion, and collaborative effort. They reflect the voices and aspirations of our diverse neighborhoods, vibrant business community, and passionate residents.
PlanCOS: A Commitment to Excellence
Our engagement with PlanCOS, the City's Comprehensive Plan, is a testament to our effective advocacy. PlanCOS, adopted in January 2019, aims to build a great city that matches our scenery. This comprehensive plan is organized around six vision themes: Vibrant Neighborhoods, Unique Places, Thriving Economy, Strong Connections, Renowned Culture, and Majestic Landscapes. Each theme reflects the primary focuses identified through extensive citizen, public official, and administrative staff engagement.
The plan not only outlines keystone indicators and strategies for achieving key priorities but also highlights six key projects and implementation strategies, all of which have seen significant progress. PlanCOS’s excellence was recognized with an Honor Award from the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association at the 2019 Chapter Conference in Snowmass Village, Colorado. This prestigious award honors plans and people for their innovation, quality, and promotion of community progress.
The Comprehensive Planning division continues to monitor PlanCOS's progress through an annual report that highlights key projects, evaluates objectives, and reports on key indicators. These keystone indicators measure citywide progress towards achieving the PlanCOS vision and are tracked in real time via an online dashboard.
Proven and Effective Advocacy
Our involvement in both the Strategic Plan and PlanCOS underscores our dedication to proven and effective community advocacy. These strategic planning processes mark significant milestones for CONO and position us as a vital contributor to the future development of Colorado Springs.
We look forward to continuing our work with these initiatives and other community projects, striving to make our city a vibrant and thriving place for all residents.
