A community survey will be developed to help guide the process this year, officials said.
The eight areas covered by the strategic plan are: service delivery; communication; organization support; governance; economic development; transportation and mobility; environmental sustainability; and fiscal policy, each of which was briefly touched on at the Feb. 17 meeting.
Further strategic planning sessions will be held throughout the year to update the township’s long-term plan extending through 2034, officials said at the meeting. Annual updates are included in the outline for the 20-year plan.
Areas of interest identified by board members for future discussion include crime and safety, which Director Shelley Sekula-Gibbs said has become a more prominent concern since COVID-19.
“All of the things we took for granted before COVID[-19] seem to be a little different, and I think that has to be factored in. ... Safety needs to be teased out a little bit better on the survey,” Sekula-Gibbs said.
In discussing governance, the strategic planning could look at establishing what conditions would spur a board to again propose incorporation. On Nov. 2, roughly two-thirds of residents rejected an incorporation proposition.
Board members addressed comments from residents speculating that the measure could come up again in May by stating that is not possible because the deadline to place a special election on the ballot in May was Feb. 12.
“A future trigger document needs to be drafted that would dictate when the issue comes back up,” board Chair Gordy Bunch said.
