Fairhope’s leaders wanted their residents to take ownership of the city’s future, but when they first asked, hardly anyone came. After a sparsely attended initial session, the city scheduled a second community meeting and issued an open invitation, determined to gather the public input needed to build its first strategic plan.
A second chance to be heard
The follow-up meeting was set for 4 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 28, 2014, at the Fairhope Public Library on Fairhope Avenue. The city arranged the additional session for a simple reason: turnout at the first meeting had been almost nonexistent.
“We’re doing it because we only had six residents that showed up at the last one and there’s no way we can have input from the community with just six people,” Mayor Tim Kant said.
The effort was tied to Fairhope’s participation in the Alabama Communities of Excellence program, known as ACE, with the strategic plan serving as a key component of the initiative. Kant suspected many residents did not fully understand what the ACE program involved. He described it as an initiative that uses a comprehensive, three-phase approach to help participating communities plan and prepare for smart, sustainable growth.
Two plans, two purposes
Part of the challenge was terminology. Kant said there had been confusion between the city’s comprehensive plan and the strategic plan it was now trying to assemble, and he drew a clear distinction between the two.
- The comprehensive plan represents a long-term vision of where the city hopes to go.
- The strategic plan is an action plan that officials commit to completing.
“This is just part of the ACE program and it’s about our strategic plan, which we’ve never had for Fairhope,” Kant said.
The questions on the table
Kant framed the meeting as a chance for residents to weigh in directly on how the city should spend its resources over the next five years. The list of possibilities he offered touched on the everyday concerns that shape life in a growing community.
“People need to come and tell us their concerns, whether it’s paving the streets or building more parks or putting in more sidewalks or adding onto the library,” Kant said. “All of those things need to be talked about and what we ought to be spending our resources on over the next five years.”
By putting choices such as street paving, park expansion, new sidewalks and a possible library addition before residents, the city hoped to turn abstract planning language into a concrete conversation about priorities.
What attendees could expect
To make the second meeting more productive, the city brought in outside expertise to guide the discussion. The session was to be facilitated by economic and community development specialist Ephraim Stockdale of Alabama Power Company, and a light dinner would be served to those who attended. Residents with questions or seeking more information were directed to call the city at 251-990-0218.
The push reflected a broader truth about municipal planning: a strategic plan is only as strong as the community engagement behind it. With only six residents at the first meeting, the city risked producing a document that reflected the views of a handful of people rather than the community as a whole. By trying again, and by spelling out exactly what was at stake, Fairhope’s leaders signaled that they wanted the plan to be genuinely shaped by the people who would live with its results for years to come.