DAPHNE – Daphne will kick off efforts to prepare a plan to guide city growth for the next 20 years with a public meeting Wednesday, Nov. 17.
The meeting will start at 6 p.m. at the council chamber in Daphne City Hall, Adrienne Jones, city community development director, said.
“We want the citizens to participate. This is their opportunity to have their voices heard so that they can, with the expertise of our consultants, help prepare a way for the future, Daphne 2042,” Jones said. “We know a lot of people will be talking about growth and new houses and its impact on schools and its impact on the environment and all that. We want to hear from them.”
The plan, Envision Daphne 2042, will help Daphne officials and residents prepare for growth in the next 20 years. The last city comprehensive plan was completed about 20 years ago.
“This is a good step for Daphne,” Mayor Robin LeJeune said. “It’s a good step given all the growth we’ve had in the last 10 years.”
The mayor said planners will be looking at what issues will affect Daphne in the next 20 years.
“I just want to make sure that we focus on quality of life issues,” he said. “Infrastructure will be a big part of that as well.”
In the last 20 years, Daphne’s population grew from 16,581 to 27,462, an increase of 65.62 %, according to U.S. Census Bureau reports.
Jones said the meeting will help officials and consultants prepare for the next two decades.
“It’ll be an informational meeting where our consultants, which will be Orion Planning and Social Design, will be providing information to the community about the planning process and they will also have a portion where they will be gathering public input,” Jones said.
She said participants will be asked to answer questions during the meeting by using a smartphone app or placing comments on posters in the meeting room.
“What they'll be doing is determining all of the issues that the citizens bring forward,” she said. “We'll be looking at a way to address all of those issues.”
She said issues include areas such as housing, transportation, the environment and park expansions.
“We’ll cover all the aspects of future development. Answering problems that we continue to see about traffic. We hope their expertise will help us determine what our options should be.”
She that that while officials and consultants will be driving the plan, the proposal will also be based on the opinions of Daphne residents.
“That's very important for people to understand not that they're coming in and telling the city of Daphne, ‘here's what you need to do.’ We're going to gather information from the community first, then come back with feedback to address the issues that were brought up,” Jones said.
She said the city will have additional public meetings in the upcoming months to hear more opinions and to inform residents about the status of the plan. She said officials hope to have the plan ready to go into effect in 2022.
