Comprehensive planning committee seeks feedback from residents
The City of Somerset is planning for the future and looking to residents for feedback as it creates a roadmap to the year 2050.
Somerset Mayor Alan Keck and the Somerset City Council recently hired a consulting team and launched a steering committee to update the city’s comprehensive plan. Strategic planners with Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group will guide this committee — comprised of representatives from city government, city council, economic development, tourism and planning and zoning — through a six-month process to develop a 25-year plan for growth and development.
Dubbed Somerset 2050, the plan will define the community’s vision for the future, building a foundation for land use, transportation, infrastructure and facilities that will shape future policy decisions. It will serve as a roadmap for public and private development projects and include supporting goals and recommendations for future growth.
In addition to the committee’s input, the plan will include public feedback from an online survey and workshop. The online survey is now closed, but residents can participate in an open house scheduled Oct. 10th to provide input on the plan’s vision, goals, and recommendations.
“The participation of property owners, residents, business owners and organization leaders in the community is critical for a successful plan,” Keck said. “I encourage anyone who has any stake in Somerset’s success or cares about this community’s future to please participate, as it will inform our work to create a plan for future generations.”
With offices in Indianapolis and Louisville, Taylor Siefker Williams Design Group has collaborated with community residents to plan for, create and enhance places across the Midwest for more than a decade. Keck said the firm came highly recommended by other Kentucky city leaders as a team that could plan the community residents want to see.
“Being able to see your strengths and weaknesses, challenges and opportunities is best accomplished by a third party who can help reveal your blind spots,” Keck said. “We’ve built a strong steering committee and are looking forward to Taylor Siefker Williams’s guidance on engaging the public in this process and drafting a plan that addresses everything Somerset needs to grow and thrive in the future.
“Dreams are goals without a plan,” Keck continued. “Dreaming big, thinking with vision is admirable. But it’s imperative that is met with actionable steps. We have dreamed big during the last five years and accomplished amazing things, but the work isn’t finished. What is possible over the next five years, and the five after that? I hope you’ll join me as we dream together, work together, and achieve new heights together, creating a plan for prosperity for the next 25 years.”
