Strategic plan for Fairfax County to focus on nine priority areas
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| Residents discuss their vision for the future of Fairfax County at the James Lee Community Center in March. |
As a result of a community engagement process on the future of Fairfax County, nine areas were identified to form the basis of the county’s strategic plan.
The strategic plan will set a clear, unified, community-driven vision for the next 10 to 20 years that aligns and integrates existing plans.
The nine areas that emerged from a series of community engagement meetings attended by more than 1,000 people and 15,000 responses to an online survey are:
- Education and lifelong learning
- Mobility and transportation
- Safety and security
- Housing and neighborhood livability
- Economic opportunity
- Health and environment
- Cultural and recreational opportunities
- Self-sufficiency for vulnerable populations
- Efficient and effective government
In addition to the nine areas, five cross-cutting themes emerged from the community engagement process. These themes will be applied across all nine priority areas: affordability, equity, sustainability, innovation, and collaboration and engagement.
County Executive Bryan Hill and his strategic planning team presented the results of the community engagement process and recommendations to the Board of Supervisors and School Board March 26.
Over the next seven months, strategy teams will explore the details and nuances of each priority area by:
- Applying a racial and social equity lens to their work
- Creating multiple opportunities for more engagement
- Defining community-focused (not government-centric) outcomes
- Using data-driven insights and evidence-based strategies, and
- Identifying factors that influence each priority area.
This seems like a total waste of time. All we do is have meetings, and the dump remains a dump.
Actually, it is progress and the first time I can remember that the community was asked their opinion on anything. Lack of community engagement has been the standard way of doing things in Fairfax County. For example, when the development industry wrote the new process for the Land Development Services no one bothered to ask for any input from the taxpayers or any other community segment on how they felt about that. Personally, I think it likens to foxes writing the rules for access to the hen house and the silly taxpayers are expected to pay taxes to fund the salaries of those who only represent the developers. Meanwhile citizens who had no input into the process at all have to live with the consequences. LDS goals are tied to what the developers achieve… what a system!