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Photo courtesy of Regional Planning Commissionof Greater Birmingham.
The Plan Chelsea project is a yearlong process during which the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham takes input from communityresidents on what they would like the future of the city to be in the coming years.
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Public Involvement at a Glance.
Since the kickoff of the Plan Chelsea project nine months ago, the Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham has gathered information from Chelsea residents and will soon present their findings and suggestions.
About 500 citizens took the survey, mapped their ideas, and attended public meetings. Thanks to that input, the City of Chelsea is now on its way to having a clear vision for how to grow as a community over the next several years.
Samuel Parsons, Community Planner for the RPC, said that the amount of responses was good for a city the size of Chelsea and gave them a good representation of what the community wants for the future.
“Far and away the top reason people love to be in Chelsea is the family-friendly atmosphere,” Parsons said. “Therefore, we want to make sure we recommend policies and actions that preserve that unique dynamic of Chelsea.”
Other top strengths included a low cost of living, quality public schools and government services along with and access to parks, recreation and sports programs.
The surveys showed that the top three challenges for Chelsea was the lack of a town center (downtown), limited retail and dining options and traffic congestion. Parsons said they want to make sure the plan speaks to these challenges in an actionable way.
“Traffic congestion faces every suburb and what this plan tries to do is set out policies and actions to utilize current transportation infrastructure more efficiently,” Parsons said. “It’s not about building more, but about using what we have now.”
Of those who took the survey, 53.9% of people said that as Chelsea grows, they would like to see more development that is concentrated in compact locations where it is easy to walk, as opposed to 27.9% who chose easy to drive.
As for developing a town center, Parsons said the consistent themes were something compact and pleasant for pedestrians to walk around.
“It would be a mix of uses, including retail, office, public spaces and a public park,” he said “We want a place where people can get to different services without having to get back in their car and drive.”
Residents relayed concern about uncontrolled growth and development. Parsons said they love Chelsea being a small town, but want options for shopping and retail.
“These are competing priorities and interests in a comprehensive plan,” Parsons said. “There’s no correct or incorrect way to grow, only a proper balance between the two.”
Other categories included shopping and dining choices, quality job choices and quality living choices.
As for concern for uncontrolled pace of development (strain on schools and infrastructure), Parsons said they want to make sure while growing with the community, to continue to grow in a way the city can actually sustain and maintain over the long run.
Regarding Parks & Recreation, some of the items people said they would like to see are a swimming pool, dog park, tennis courts, splash pad and new basketball court at the rec center.
A splash pad is already in the works and many residents are not aware of the tennis courts located on Hwy. 51 next to the new fire station.
Once completed, the plan will be a book of suggestions on how to implement these things. From now over the next few months, they will be typing out specific goals and actions for the city and partners to do.
The next public meeting will be held on April 7 where the RPC will reveal the plan and get additional public feedback. It will then go to the Planning Commission for a public hearing and they will vote whether or not to recommend its adoption by the council.
“Although everybody’s ideas will be considered, not all of them can make it into the plan, but we want to balance them as best we can,” Parsons said.
For more information, visit planchelsea.com.