Planning Shakopee's future

Shakopee Valley News

City of Shakopee staff are at the beginning of a two-year process to adopt a 2040 Comprehensive Plan called “Envision Shakopee.”

The city will host the first major workshop with opportunities for public input on Oct. 12 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Shakopee Community Center.

The Comprehensive Plan guides the city’s development for the foreseeable future, Shakopee City Planner Eric Weiss said.

“It really sets the direction of the overall operations of the city,” he said. “It’s connected to decisions for the budget, for infrastructure projects, for policies — it kind of lays the groundwork for everything else that we do.”

The 2030 Comprehensive Plan is nearly 10 years old and another big update likely won’t be done for another 10 years.

“If someone has an issue like they think a particular intersection is unsafe, or they’d like to see different types of parks, now is really the time for us to hear that,” Weiss said.

Engaging the community was one of the main foundations for Envision Shakopee, Weiss said.

“Instead of coming to the community with a plan and asking, ‘Does this look right?’ we’re going to them and saying, without a plan, ‘What do you want to see and what is your vision for the future of Shakopee?’” he said. “So we’ve been doing that for the last couple months.”

The meeting is an opportunity for community members to share input on the overall vision for Shakopee. After that, staff will work on more specific details, such as particular neighborhoods or streets, Weiss said.

The public will still have many opportunities for input throughout the plan.

At the meeting, city planning staff will also share feedback they’ve received from community groups, conversations and events such as Rhythm on the Rails.

“The workshop is an opportunity for us to share, this is what we’ve heard so far and we’ve done some analysis of trends and data that’s out there and then we’ve put some thought into how to structure the plan, how it can be different from our current plan,” Weiss said. “So we’ll check in with the community and say, ‘Is this right? Is there anything missing? Any additional feedback?’ “

The workshop will feature information on important sections of the plan, such as parks and transportation, a presentation on the plan, as well as an opportunity to ask questions and talk one-on-one with city staff.

“We’re hoping to get a large segment of the population — as many people as can come would be fantastic,” Weiss said.

Work on the plan and opportunity for feedback will continue throughout the planning process. The plan is due to the Metropolitan Council on Dec. 31, 2018 and in 2019, the city will formally adopt the plan after review.

The city is also tentatively planning workshops for January, April, November and December 2018.