The town of Saratoga has contracted with Community Builders, Inc. (CBI), a community and economic development consulting firm based in Douglas, Wyo. to prepare an updated Comprehensive Master Plan to serve the needs of the community for the next 20 years. CBI has teamed up with Coffey Engineering and Surveying from Laramie and BHA Design from Fort Collins, Colo. to complete the master plan.
The town’s existing Comprehensive Plan was completed in 1977. Since a master plan helps to guide the community’s future, it should periodically be reviewed, revised and renewed so that it will meet the changing complexion of the Saratoga community. The town received grants from the Wyoming Business Council and from the Wyoming Department of Transportation to help develop the master plan.
The master plan will be a blueprint for the future of the town of Saratoga and will target how and where development and improvements should occur in the town. The overall goal of the master plan will be to develop a vision and action plan to improve the health and viability of the future of Saratoga, while at the same time preserving what is important to the quality of life in the community.
Major topics to be included in the plan are: economic development and tourism; community character; housing; land use; recreation, parks, North Platte River and open space; transportation; public utility infrastructure and services; communication; and community facilities.
The success of the plan is dependent on the inclusion of a wide and diverse audience during the plan’s development. The plan relies on broad public input to be truly representative of public interests and desires. With public support, the community can then turn themes into action items for implementation.
Mayor Ed Glode stresses the importance of community involvement for the master plan. “Public participation and shared input is critical if the resulting plan is to reflect the hopes and values of the ‘many,’ not the ‘few,’” said Glode. “What defines a vibrant community? What brought you here? What keeps you here? What brings our young people back? What is done well? What needs work?”
In the coming months, Saratoga area residents can expect to see multiple opportunities to access the public participation process beginning with a targeted survey process at the Eighth annual Platte Valley Community Center Foundation Party on the Platte Sept. 19. This will be the first big push in a public engagement process designed to interact with the community. Additional public input will be gathered through community workshops; scheduled events; surveys; focus groups and one-on-one interviews.
The community visioning process will form a foundation for the creation of the master plan itself—a document that states the community’s values, vision for itself, opportunities for achieving the vision, and goals and actions for the future. A master plan influences policies that have a direct bearing on the quality of life in the community. Community leaders will look to the plan for direction on land use, transportation, housing, parks, trails, and open space, utilities and community economic issues.
The plan will be designed to be used by anyone interested in the future of Saratoga, and can be useful in many ways to different groups:
• Topics such as the economic development goals of the town are a priority for policy makers and other groups.
• Business and property owners may be interested in land use recommendations or development policies for their property.
• Residents may be interested in the location of parks, trails, schools, or community facilities.
An advisory committee is helping guide the plan’s development throughout the process. This committee will be meeting monthly throughout the plan’s development.
For more information about the process, please contact Advisory Committee Chairman Stacy Crimmins at the Platte Valley Chamber of Commerce 307-326-8855, [email protected], or Bobbe Fitzhugh at CBI, 307-359-3311, [email protected].
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