King City Council completed an important effort at its Feb. 26 meeting with the adoption of the King City 20-Year Strategic Plan. The objective of the process was to establish an agreed upon vision of what we want King City to be and to look like in the future, as well as specific goals and strategies to address future needs and issues on a proactive basis.
The City believes this is a good time to establish a strategic plan. As the City makes progress in addressing urgent needs and paying off debt, it will be important to have a plan to ensure discretionary resources are targeted as effectively as possible toward a common direction.
The process included preparing a SWOT Analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats), identifying projected long-term needs, assessing public input, developing vision statements, developing proposed goals and strategies to accomplish each of the vision statements, a public meeting to consider the draft, and final City Council adoption. Results of two citywide surveys were utilized to help ensure the plan reflects the community’s priorities.
The comprehensive plan consists of 74 measures in five categories, including Growth and Development, Quality of Life, Local Economy, City Finances, and City Facilities, Services and Infrastructure.
To ensure the plan is implemented in a systematic manner, the City’s 10-year long-range financial plan will be updated to reflect the highest priority items, and the City’s biennial budget is based upon the long-range financial plan. A number of themes are reflected in the Strategic Plan.
First, in order to help ensure everyone in the community experiences the benefits from future improvements, an emphasis has been placed on development of new housing and job development and training programs.
Second, many of the economic development efforts are focused largely on increasing the vitality of the downtown area, development of businesses related to the cannabis industry, and expansion of tourism related efforts.
Third, an expansion of recreational opportunities is planned, but strategies emphasize opportunities to expand the use of existing resources through partnerships with the school districts, Salinas Valley Fairgrounds and Monterey County Parks Department rather than the City developing new facilities on its own. Other recommendations also emphasize partnerships with a variety of existing community groups and agencies.
Fourth, an overall long-term goal of development for the southern undeveloped area of the City is to include housing adjacent to the Golf Course, a hotel adjacent to the Salinas Valley Fairgrounds, a travel center or related uses adjacent to the interchange, and a variety of potential regional attractions and/or retail businesses along the Highway 101 freeway frontage.
Fifth, an emphasis is placed on continuing to focus on the existing priorities established by the City Council and implementation of plans in place prior to developing many new programmatic goals, particularly with regard to upgrade and maintenance of all areas of the City’s infrastructure.
Finally, it is proposed to maintain prudent fiscal management practices and to work toward establishing a future minimum reserve of 20 percent of the City’s General Fund with a goal of achieving 50 percent.
A copy of the King City 20-Year Strategic Plan can be found on the City’s website. Contact City Hall at 385-3281 if you have any questions.
