Livable Communities Plan Unifies Governments, Organizations’ Priorities

Optimistic about having the right partners committed to a shared vision for growth, Mecklenburg County, N.C. is looking toward the next 35 years with confidence, rather than unease.

With a half million new residents projected to make the county their new home by 2050, it was time to get everyone on the same page when they set their course for the future. In the end, what became the Mecklenburg Livable Communities Plan formulated a wide-ranging and clear vision for how to move ahead as the county grows.

The county’s planning department identified more than 200 plans in progress by local governments, nonprofits and businesses in the county, but few, if any, were coordinated with others.

“There were a lot of conversations going on, but they weren’t all about the same things,” said Marcus Carson, the county’s sustainability manager. “Organizations were un-intentionally competing and they would all wind up with gaps in service.”

In 2013, a feasibility study gave the go-ahead for eight local jurisdictions and the Foundation for the Carolinas to prepare a plan that would be driven by the community with input from stakeholders and ultimately endorsed by local governments. It would consider input from all of those sources and aim to represent a synthesis of their shared goals.

“The first step was asking every-one, ‘What does our community value?’” Carson said. “Identifying those things started the conversation that built this plan. We knew what we wanted to preserve and where we wanted to go.”

The seven final answers became the guiding principles for the plan. Mecklenburg County residents idealized their community as being welcoming, innovative, connected, inclusive, prepared, healthy and resilient. Those principles helped form the 21 strategies that became the backbone of the plan.

The strategies range from vague (manage resources wisely) to specific (promote the redevelopment, reuse and rehabilitation of declining and vacant properties).

“The scope is pretty daunting,” Carson said. “We’re covering essentially the entire spectrum of issues a community can face. Trying to bring all the stakeholders to talk was a big job.”

But it worked out, people showed up, more than 2,000 individuals and 50 organizations, and Mecklenburg County’s character played a part in making that happen — that is, getting everyone involved.

“I think it’s the combination of the county’s medium size and the fact that Charlotte is a young city,” he said. “The city is growing, and people can have a part in making decisions about where things are going.”

And in the process, Mecklenburg County learned the depth to which some concerns had taken root.

“There’s a lot of concern around our at-risk residents, a lot more than we realized,” Carson said. “We will be coordinating to make sure these people who need support have it.

”The plan was sent off to the involved cities, towns and organizations that participated, and they were encouraged to incorporate it into their strategic planning or, for local governments, pass resolutions endorsing the plan.

The plan, however, does not include prescriptive language for specific measures, so it is nonbinding, a point Mint Hill Mayor Ted Biggers said would keep it from replacing the existing plans his town were already following.

“We have our own comprehensive plan and this isn’t going to change any of that,” he said. “It’s kind of vague, but we thought we should be a part of it moving forward.”

County Innovations and Solutions features award-winning programs. Mecklenburg Livable Communities Plan was named Best in Category among planning programs submitted to the 2015 NACo Achievement Awards.