Borough Implementable Comprehensive Plan Kickoff: Community Meeting scheduled for May 19th at 7:00 PM at the Brentwood Community Room.
Do you have ideas for how Brentwood Borough should continue to grow and change in the future? Now’s your chance to help make them a reality. The Borough is creating an Implementable Comprehensive Plan that will guide policy priorities, budget decisions and land use regulations for years to come – and it will be based on the input of those who live and work here. Please mark your calendar to join us the evening of Thursday, May 19 at 7:00 PM for the first public planning event at the Brentwood Community Room, downstairs in the Brentwood Library.
Over the next 18 months, the Borough will work with planning consultant Pashek+MTR to learn what issues and opportunities are the most important for the community to address during the next decade and devise effective targeted strategies, with the end result being a detailed playbook for getting projects underway and improvements made. Residents and business owners are encouraged to visit www.TheBrentwoodPlan.com for details on the project and ways to get involved.
This planning effort will be crowd-sourced, as public input will form the foundation of the plan and will help decide which local issues become priorities. Key issues could include such topics as supporting and growing local business opportunities, increasing walkability, mitigating traffic and parking issues, stabilizing and beautifying neighborhoods, environmental assets, future infrastructure needs, stormwater/flooding issues (is a stormwater fee necessary?) zoning and code, civic life and events, recreation (new walking trail and/or park in the Hollow) or many other areas within the locus of local government.
The project’s initial phase focuses on hearing from the community to define the issues around which the plan will be built. Once the priority issues are clear, the Borough and consultant will drill down for solutions, workshopping preferred future scenarios and action plans that will translate vision into reality. Ultimately, the plan is designed to be a practical blueprint for prosperity given real-world budgetary and other constraints.
Beyond the May 19 public event, there will be many ways to get involved, including a community questionnaire, project social media and pop-up activities at local festivals and gatherings. There will be opportunities at various project milestones to see how the plan is developing and help determine whether it’s on the right track. Stay tuned for updates at www.TheBrentwoodPlan.com
About the Implementable Plan Model:
Brentwood Borough will create its plan in the Implementable Comprehensive Plan model pioneered by Jim Pashek of Pashek+MTR and Denny Puko (PA DCED, retired). Allegheny County’s former planning director called this a “paradigm shift in the way communities plan for their future.” Instead of writing big, fat planning books that take up space on shelves, the Implementable Plan model calls for meaningful, intensive public engagement – to ensure that a plan addresses what people really care about – and detailed deep-dive strategies to make progress on those most important issues. The implementable plan is all about building and sustaining momentum for progress.
Pashek+MTR is an award-winning community planning and landscape architecture studio based on Pittsburgh’s North Side. The firm has created more than 75 community plans and is nationally recognized for leadership in the Implementable Comprehensive Plan Model. Jim and Denny have quite literally written the book on how it is done. Details on their how-to planning manual appear at www.offtheshelfandintoaction.com.