NEWCASTLE 2040
Our Comprehensive Plan sets our goals and vision for the next 20 years and beyond. Citizens and residents of Newcastle will be able to share their feedback to help create these goals so that the future of Newcastle is bright.
OPEN HOUSE FOR PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT
(NEW DATE) Tuesday March 8th, 2022 - 4:30 – 7:00 PM
Newcastle Multi-Purpose Center Ballroom
705 NW 10th St, Newcastle, OK 73065
We invite you to attend an informal, public open house to review, discuss, and provide input into the Vision and Goals that have been developed for the City’s Comprehensive Plan update. At the open house, you will have an opportunity to view displays, chat with the Project Team and City Staff, and share your thoughts for the future of Newcastle.
The new Comprehensive Plan will guide decision making and development for the next 20 years and we need your help to ensure the plan integrates the Vision and Goals that are most important to Newcastle residents.
If you haven't taken our community survey yet, we'd love your input. Click here: https://arcg.is/1ry1GH0
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT WEBSITE
Our community engagement website has several important features.
Over the course of the next 18 months, the project team will be hosting several public meetings, workshops, and events in order to gather information and feedback from residents during the development of the plan. Throughout the planning process, the "Engage Newcastle" website will serve as the hub for all updates and engagement.
Click here: https://www.newcastle2040.com/
COMMUNITY SURVEY
Newcastle residents are invited to participate in developing the City's new Comprehensive Plan.
This Community Survey, the first of many public engagement opportunities, asks a range of questions that will help guide the preparation of the Comprehensive Plan.
The Community Survey contains 23 questions and should take roughly 10 to 15 minutes to complete. Your input and feedback are crucial to the development of the Plan and is greatly appreciated!
Please click on the link below to access the survey via your computer, phone, or tablet. There are also paper copies available at City Hall if you wish to do it that way instead. Please feel free to share it with your family, friends, and anyone else who may be interested in participating. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to either Laura Bergey at laura.bergey@guernsey.us or Katie Fiddler at katie.fiddler@guernsey.us.
Please use this link to complete the COMMUNITY SURVEY: https://arcg.is/1ry1GH
WHY CREATE A COMPREHENSIVE PLAN?
A community comprehensive plan serves the following functions:
- The plan provides continuity. The plan provides continuity across time, and gives successive public bodies a common framework for addressing land-use issues.
- It is the means by which a community can balance competing private interests. John Public may want to store oil drums on his property. Jane Citizen, his neighbor, would like to open a restaurant on her property. Planning seeks to strike a balance among the many competing demands on land by creating development patterns that are orderly and rational, provide the greatest benefits for individuals and the community as a whole and avoid nuisance conflicts between land uses.
- It is the means by which a community can protect public investments. Planning is the means by which a community avoids digging up last year’s new road to lay this year’s new sewer pipe. Well-planned, orderly and phased development patterns are also less expensive for a community to provide with public services than low-density, scattered development.
- It allows communities to plan development in a way that protects valued resources. Planning can identify environmental features like wetlands, agricultural lands, woods and steep slopes and suggest strategies for preserving those resources from destruction or degradation by inappropriate development.
- It provides guidance for shaping the appearance of the community. A plan can set forth policies that foster a distinctive sense of place.
- It promotes economic development. The plan contains valuable information that drives the location decisions of prospective firms.
- It provides justification for decisions. Plans provide a factual and objective basis to support zoning decisions and can be used by communities to defend their decisions if challenged in court.
- Through public dialogue, citizens express a collective vision for the future. Last, but certainly not least, the planning process provides citizens an opportunity to brainstorm, debate and discuss the future of their community. A plan developed through a robust public input process enjoys strong community support. Subsequent decisions that are consistent with the plan’s policies are less likely to become embroiled in public controversy.