VILLAGE OF BRIMFIELD
Comprehensive Plan
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan represents a community’s vision over a 20-year horizon. This vision is derived from extensive collaboration and community engagement between residents, elected officials, and stakeholders. During the planning process, residents discuss and create goals for a range of topics such as housing, transportation, infrastructure, land use, and economic development. To plan for community growth, the comprehensive plan creates general land use guidelines for land outside the current village limits in the “Extra-Jurisdictional Planning Area.”
Components of a Comprehensive Plan
A comprehensive plan is developed to answer three questions:
What are we as a community?
What would we like to be as a community?
How do we get there?
The first component of a comprehensive plan is taking inventory of the existing conditions of the community. During this phase of the plan, Tri-County Regional Planning Commission (“Tri-County”) gathers extensive data to understand community trends and build a community profile.
Once the community’s current conditions are understood, a vision is created. This vision represents the Village of Brimfield’s goals and the type of community it wants to be. This vision is created through extensive community engagement and public input.
The final step is to create an action plan. This final component creates actionable items that need to be accomplished in order to achieve the vision.
Roles and Partners
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission
The Village of Brimfield
Steering Committee
Community
Tri-County Regional Planning Commission facilitates the planning process, leads steering committee meetings, gathers and analyzes data, and supports the community organizing efforts of the steering committee by coordinating engagement events, like workshops and open houses.
The Village of Brimfield plays a crucial role in the comprehensive planning process. Brimfield’s role is to provide support and feedback on implementation strategies and ensure the plan is realized after adoption.
The Steering Committee is comprised of volunteers who act as liaisons between Tri-County and Brimfield. From teachers, business owners, and community leaders, the varying roles that members fill make them uniquely positioned to provide integral information about community needs and desires.
Members of the community are comprised of residents, employees, and stakeholders of Brimfield. The role of the community throughout the planning process is to provide feedback that informs the priorities and goals of the comprehensive plan.
Steering Committee Members
Left to right: Brian Porter, Holly Johnson, Constance Monk, Rod Gilles, Chad Jones, and Dan Fishel
Not pictured: Karen Christy, Dave Dye, Kevin Frye, and Michael Meinders
Planning Process Timeline
1)Develop a Community Profile
2) Perform Community Engagement
3)Establish a Community Vision
4) Produce a Plan
5) Faciliate a Public Comment Period
6) Adopt the Plan
Community Engagement
Community engagement is an essential component of the planning process. When community engagement is done effectively, it empowers community members to enact change within their community. Tri-County Regional Planning Commission, in collaboration with the steering committee and the Village of Brimfield will maintain inclusivity to ensure the creation of an impactful plan. The engagement plan will provide multiple opportunities for the public to provide input. Additionally, the engagement plan will consist of robust methods to reduce barriers to participation.
The following are different components of the engagement plan:
Survey
To better understand community needs and public opinion, Tri-County has published a survey for Brimfield community members. The survey will remain open through May 15th and covers topics such as housing, recreation, and economic development. Surveys are available online and in hard-copy at Brimfield Public Library and Village Hall. The survey is also being distributed at community pop-up events and will be available at the Community Open House on May 1st.
Open House
The Village of Brimfield will host a community Open House on Thursday, May 1st from 4 – 6 PM at the new Village Hall located at 135 S Galena Avenue. The event will feature several interactive stations designed to help community members evaluate community assets and identify priorities for the Village and surrounding areas. Steering committee members and Tri-County staff will be on hand to answer questions.
Stakeholder Interview
The Steering Committee works with the Village and Tri-County staff to identify community stakeholders for interviews. Interviewees are often technical experts who can provide detailed insights into the Village’s institutional capacity, social services, community interests, and the business environment. Interviews are designed to gain context, solicit insights, and identify any organizational needs.
Pop-up Events
Successful engagement plans meet people where they are, offering outreach and participation options at events and gatherings already occurring. To spread awareness of the planning process and to encourage residents to participate in the community survey or Open House, Steering Committee members shared flyers and information at various sports, educational, and social events in March and April.