Zoning amendments were originally crafted based upon the 2006 Master Plan; these amendments were placed before the voters in March of 2008. The ballot item was rejected and the current zoning was therefore left unchanged.  The City Council suggested taking a second look at the Master Plan, hence the revision process initiated in June 2008.  

The goal of the subsequent Master Plan effort has been to engage the community in a process that would determine the relevancy of the visions, issues, and action items contained within the 2006 Master Plan, and revise as necessary in order to have a foundation for amendments to the Zoning Ordinance.   

The Planning Board established a Master Plan Steering Committee to develop a public participation process.  This process included community forums, surveys, and work sessions with citizen volunteers, with the intent to receive as much public input as possible.   After the document was assembled from citizen input, the Planning Board invited the City Council to review and comment on the plan.  At the conclusion of the City Council’s initial discussion, and as the result of a work session with the Planning Board, it was determined that the document needs substantial editing to distill the issues and actions into a more concise and usable document.