After nine months of documentation, background research, public meetings, drafts and revisions, the final product of the Rapid City Comprehensive Plan update is on its way to decision makers.
An important guiding tool such as this would usually be kept up to date every five to 10 years, but aside from some subsections, our city’s plan has not been refreshed for more than 30 years! A comprehensive plan not only gives government and citizens a big view of where and how the community might evolve and develop, it provides a guide for strategic land use and investment decisions.
The Arboretum surrounds the city water treatment plant.
In terms of parks, and our concern that the parks within the Rapid Creek greenway remain protected, the absence of updated policy in a comprehensive plan created confusion in 2005 and 2006 about development in the greenway. A revision and update of the city’s flood plain policy followed in 2007. Similarly, Rapid City has other pieces of the planning jigsaw: a parks and recreation plan, a strategic plan, a bicycle and pedestrian master plan, but this latest effort pulls all the considerations together into one document and sets out policies for how to achieve the community we want, as described in Seven Core Values: Balanced Pattern of Growth; Vibrant, Livable Community; Safe, Healthy, Inclusive, and Skilled Community; Efficient Transportation and Infrastructure Systems; Economic Stability and Growth; Outstanding Recreational and Cultural Opportunities; Responsive, Accessible, and Effective Governance.
You can view the plan, summaries of comments from meetings and work groups, information on the process, and background documents here.
The plan, which has a lot to say about parks, greenway, flood hazard, habitat conservation and other topics important to Friends, is expected to go to the planning commission and the City Council later this month. You can download a copy of our comments.