When Steve Glueck, Golden Planning Director, and his department were instructed by Mayor Jacob Smith to respond to the 2008 call for Heart & Soul Community Planning proposals, who would have thought that they would also embark on a journey of personal transformation?
The primary goal of this work was to update the City’s Comprehensive Plan—at times the most boring aspect of urban planning work. But Golden’s approach was undeniably fresh, innovative and comprehensive (in the fullest sense of the word), and it reenergized the greater community.
“The Golden Comprehensive Plan is truly revolutionary!” said Glueck, recently. And he’s right, their new plan looks and feels different. The layout makes information more digestible for anyone in the community to understand, but more importantly, it’s structured around values articulated by residents.
The transformation for many citizens happened over a two-year community building process, which garnered newfound trust between residents, city staff and elected officials. The Plan, as a result, does not just represent decisions made by the Planning Department; it’s a people’s plan, built collaboratively over time and designed to sustain a way of life that matters most to Goldenites. Many see it as the next generation of planning. All agree that it is the result of a process designed to engage, inform and challenge citizens to step up to the plate and speak for their community.
Here’s how Glueck’s promises of “magic” have evolved into tangible results: Golden Vision 2030 (GV 2030) invited thousands of residents to discuss the future of their city at events such as block parties, chili socials, group story circuits and festivals as well as story listening sessions and community summits. The community input was distilled into two guiding principles and ten value themes for the City. The values identified through the process served as the basis for recent policy and process changes and will guide future code adjustments and community investment decisions.
Initially, City staff felt the sole weight of their new values-based obligations. They’ve recently realized that the greater community was not only an untapped resource, but that residents were eager to actively support their shared core values. A “team” mentality between City and community led projects is now the norm.
Golden Vision 2030 continues to be the source of new relationship building and collaborative efforts because it helped give meaning to decisions as they relate to the community’s overarching values. Some of those projects include:
City Projects
Completely different from the typical Comprehensive Plan, Golden’s Plan is now based on the town’s values. It includes neighborhood planning, outreach, and indicators for measuring progress and effectiveness of the Plan. It also includes General Decision-Making Guidelines, a step-by-step process to evaluate whether a development proposal addresses and fosters Golden’s core values.
i-Neighbors, an online neighborhood networking website, continues to be a valuable resource offering simple, transparent communication opportunities between elected officials, residents and City staff and has been the source of much positive action on the ground. Traffic/pedestrian safety improvements have been made in two Golden areas thanks to i-Neighbors conversations, and residents are now relying on each other more for everyday needs.
Community-Led Projects
Over the last few months, the City of Golden realized the importance of creating opportunities for the community to steward their core values. Several efforts have emerged as a result of local government incentives to give control back to the community:
City Council allocated $20K toward a Neighborhood Grant Program. Dozens of applications have already been received, and requests have already exceeded the budget. Residents proposed block parties to “bring new voices” to community action projects and “’hood issues” like neighborhood clean-ups, community composting, vegetable gardens, neighborhood watches, pedestrian improvement projects and sustainability strategies (i.e. allowing chickens in city limits).
Several local leaders involved with GV 2030 felt a personal obligation to implement some of the less tangible community values, such as ‘sense of community’, ‘belonging and volunteerism’ and ‘friendliness’. So the Golden Cares 3C website was born. It’s Golden’s way for individuals, families or groups to “exchange” time, material items, skills and money. Ultimately, the site aims to strengthen the social infrastructure that contributes to the overall well being of the Golden community.