Visioning Background

City Council recognizes that conducting a visioning process to capture and reflect the full breadth and depth of our community is of the highest priority. With the last visioning process occurring more than 10 years ago, the high number of new residents, and a range of community-defining choices present, the need to strategically look forward to the future is upon us. 

As the elected representatives of Worthington residents, City Council will assume the primary leadership role in this visioning process by developing a process architecture, selecting members of the Visioning Committee that will directly execute and oversee this process, and actively engaging with the Committee and residents throughout the process.

COUNCIL EDITED copy
council chambers

Council’s involvement will include attending Committee meetings as listeners and observers, receiving regular reports as needed from Committee representatives at Council meetings, and providing feedback and direction. Further, Council will engage with the public throughout the process, as individuals and as a body, to ensure consistency in the process. 

City staff’s role in the Committee’s workings will be in the form of technical and administrative support, and not oversight or executive guidance. Staff will implement, at Council’s direction, any awareness campaigns or promotion of public information resources to ensure process objectives are achieved.

The community visioning process, as outlined by the City’s consultant, is estimated to span a six- to nine-month period. Council is committed to undertaking the actions necessary to fulfill this general timeline. Council activities will include discussions at weekly meetings and any related decisions, including financial appropriations, directions to staff, approval of requests from the Visioning Committee, determining needed course corrections, and any other decision to further advance the success of the process.

A guiding principle:

Meaningfully engage with the widest range of Worthington residents that is feasible, thereby encompassing within the resulting vision the broadest possible range of life experiences, backgrounds, and viewpoints. By listening to residents of all ages, geographic locations, socioeconomic backgrounds, prior civic engagement, and varied walks of life and abilities, we place our community discernment process upon the firmest conceivable foundation. The benchmark goal of engaging 80-percent of Worthington residents through our outreach process is ambitious yet achievable, and Council will pursue with vigor the realization of this significant goal.

aerial

Council understands these Committee responsibilities represent a significant time commitment. We believe, however, that this request is warranted since the Committee will be playing a significant role in shaping Worthington‘s future for years and possibly decades to come. Likewise, Council is committed to spending significant amounts of time in and out of Council’s regular meetings, augmenting and advancing the Committee’s work, in order to ensure the project’s success.

Committee meetings are public and are pursuant to open meeting laws and public record.