The Planning and Zoning Commission members face the question of what to do with the Jefferson City 20-year comprehensive plan now that it's nearing completion.
The plan, laid out by city staff with community input, looks at areas for city staff, business leaders, developers and members of the public to focus on. It outlines a direction for the city and not a step-by-step guide.
Ahnna Nanoski, a city planner who has been working on the comprehensive plan since 2019, presented the rough draft of the Planning and Zoning Commission on Thursday evening.
"The items set forth in this plan, they're there for everyone to use," she said. "It's not just the city taking care of everything, but there are partnerships with the chamber, the public school system, business owners. The comprehensive plan is a guide to help us all work together."
Members of the public can still comment on the plan either at the Planning and Zoning meeting June 10 or when it goes before the full City Council.
The plan's six main chapters look at: housing and neighborhoods; economic development; transportation; environmental resiliency; land use; and culture and healthy living.
While the plan lists potential projects that could help meet the goals in each chapter, commission members voiced concern it would sit on a shelf for 20 years.
"I feel like those of us that have been in this community for a really long time have seen plans in the past and the implementation piece of it's always the hardest part," Commissioner Julia Gampher said. "This is a great plan, but without implementation, it's just a great plan."
Gampher suggested the Planning and Zoning Commission, which is really the stewards of the plan, pick out items from the plan to work on each year.
"If we went through each of those six chapters and picked even one item to highlight - even if six things out of this got accomplished over the course of a year - we'd change our community," she said. "That's how powerful these things are, and I think that's where some of us that are a little more seasoned and been around the block a few times start to get frustrated."
Nanoski said the commission is the biggest advocate for the plan and between the details in it and an annual reporting mechanism, the foundation is set to see it implemented.
The plan lays out a system for city staff and the commission to check in with stakeholders on these goals annually for an idea of how things are going in relation to it.
Commissioner Jack Deeken said he doesn't think things will change within the city unless it expands its borders.
"This is my 16th year on planning and zoning, and everything we've ever talked about is internal," he said. "There's so few spaces inside the boundaries of Jefferson City, we're not going to grow. None of this plan can really be implemented until we start having spots to implement it."
One of the biggest things the city could do, he said, is revitalize the codes for businesses. He also argued the city should take a serious look at annexation.
Eric Barron, planning manager, said staff decided not to address annexation in the plan. The city has an annexation plan adopted around 1996, he said, but it would have been too complicated to consider the issue in the comprehensive plan.
Deeken also expressed concern over where funding for these projects, such as diversified housing option, would come from.
"If people can't turn a profit, they aren't going to invest their money," he said. "We don't have great wealth to dig out of like some countries do. Our money comes from people's back that are working. The only wealth we have is from people's work. I'd love to have housing for everyone, but who's going to pay for it?
"The number one driver would be economic development, but for that, you have to fix your schools. And our schools are in the tank so until you fix your schools nothing's going to grow. It's going to keep losing population."
Commissioner Gregory Butler also asked for advice on how the commission could help promote parts of the plan such as community engagement in projects.
"I think there is a huge education portion for people to feel comfortable calling the city, reading the codes, being involved in the community," Nanoski said. "That will break down a lot of barriers for people to understand 'I do have access to this program that can help me build a community garden' or 'I can't put a beauty salon in my house because it's against the code.'"