Plan Salt Lake Taking Shape

The vision statement for Salt Lake City is now in the hands of the community. The Salt Lake City planning division began work on Plan Salt Lake and invited all residents to help create its vision relating to what the city should become in the future.

Plan Salt Lake will eventually include policy statements in 15 subject areas. Currently the Plan Salt Lake team is working on the first topic: image/vision. The team has been attending public events to receive input from the community on what the general vision should be. The questions being asked are

1. What is your favorite thing about Salt Lake City?
2. What would you change about Salt Lake City?
3. What three things would you like to see in Salt Lake City in 20 years?

Elizabeth Buehler, principal planner at the Salt Lake City planning division, said that at this point they have more than 800 comments and plan to whittle that number down before presenting the input to the planning commission.

To acquire more community input, Plan Salt Lake will have a booth at upcoming events including Twilight Concert Series on July 12, Friday Night Flicks on July 13 and People's Market on July 15. “The most important thing is that we get everyone’s comments. That is the most important thing about this,” said Buehler.

Buehler noted that reaching out to the community this summer is just the first stage. The next will be going back to the community with a formal plan to find out if what the planning division heard from the public is accurately portrayed. At that point, more traditional public meetings will be held to engage with the community.

The intent is for the plan to be used as the compass for all future city policy, from community master plans to developing new trails. It will be a reference for city staff and decision makers to make sure future policy and implementation actions are consistent with city-wide goals and statements.

According to its website, the logo represents each of the nine planning communities within Salt Lake City: Capitol Hill, City Creek, Avenues, East Bench, Sugar House, Central Community, West Salt Lake, Northwest Quadrant and Northwest. They radiate from a central point, Downtown, which is the historic center of Salt Lake City. The blue circle represents Salt Lake City as a whole as it connects the separate planning communities. Plan Salt Lake is intended to tie all the community master plans together.

The other topics Plan Salt Lake will eventually tackle include land use, urban design, neighborhoods, downtown, social issues, parks, recreation and open space, housing, transportation, economic development, institutional, historic, architectural and landscape resources, arts and culture, sustainability and infrastructure.

The rest of the topics will be developed at a later date, after the city council adopts its philosophy statements. These will also be included in Plan Salt Lake. The policies will be comprehensive and city-wide, not specific to the different geographic areas within the city.

To input an idea go to www.plansaltlake.com, or on the project’s Facebook page, http://www.facebook.com/PlanSaltLake.