Agenda - Council Work Session - 02/19/2013 - Strategic Planning

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RESULTS: Ramsey Final Report Grant No. 05 -1237 City of Ramsey On his own, Burden arrived a day early in order to tour the city and gather local information and photos for use in his presentation. These Ramsey -based examples powerfully illustrated potential traffic access and mobility solutions, links between transportation and land use, and the importance of a multi -modal approach towards transportation. His method involved taking existing examples from Ramsey, then presenting several alternatives to how they could be improved using either overlays on the Ramsey slides or examples from other communities. This allowed residents to actually see the possibilities of alternative transportation plans for their own city. Burden also spent several hours with City staff, including the Public Works Director, to review the current state of Ramsey's transportation infrastructure and offer specific suggestions for improvements. Participants: The forums more than met the goal of introducing residents to new ideas along with encouraging frank discussions. Dan Marckel commented that in his experience, the heated debates that the sessions aroused are probably the best indication of the success of the forums. Ramsey goal for these sessions was to open a window to trends and ideas from around the country, setting the table for a true smorgasbord of innovations. People found some of these appetizing and others not to their liking. The most important result was for residents to see that they are not alone -- communities throughout the country are wrestling with the same questions and issues as Ramsey. They also learned that other communities are not afraid to dream innovative ideas. One resident was so encouraged that she even remarked at the end of one of the forums that she would never look at Ramsey the same way again. The city also learned which presentation formats and speaking styles worked best for our community, which should help us to choose speakers for future community events and forums. A more informal style with content grounded in local examples proved to be the best combination. Staff: While the project proposal had anticipated the forums would prove valuable for staff, the results far exceeded expectations. Staff believed the forums gave them new energy and desire for innovation. For Ramsey's staff this extra time provided extensive professional development and training that would not have been possible without these forums. An even more unexpected benefit was that the forum speakers took an active interest in the community, with several of them touring Ramsey with city staff and providing specific comments about community development and ideas for future possibilities. Marckel, Farr, Oberholtzer and Burden made suggestions that Ramsey expects will grow into more innovative plans. Ramsey truly thanks the Foundation for funding these forums, for they allowed the community to explore areas few communities have had an opportunity to visit. The forums provided Ramsey with the opportunity to enlist some of the world's best urban designers to serve as consultants to our city. As a result, Ramsey feels an obligation to share what we have learned. The final report will be one vehicle, but city staff have already begun to share ideas with other cities at conferences and professional meetings. Ramsey will be considering other vehicles to share ideas as part of the project's final phase. 9