Section 2: Goals and Objectives
To be effective, the new Comprehensive Plan must respond to the needs, values and desires of the Oakwood community. Planning goals and objectives help provide this guidance. They strive to transform community values into policies and guidelines to support the planning program.
The goals and objectives provide an important focus and foundation for the new Comprehensive Plan. Goals and objectives describe what a community wants to become in the future and establish policies to help achieve that future vision.
Goals and objectives each have a different purpose in the planning process:
- Goals describe desired end situations toward which planning efforts should be directed. They are broad and long-range. They represent an end to be sought, although they may never actually be fully attained.
- Objectives describe broad actions that should be undertaken in order to advance toward the overall goals. They provide guidelines for further study of specific projects, with economic justification a priority, in order to implement appropriate actions to accomplish the objective.
Goals and objectives express many ideas and concepts that cannot be shown on plan maps or depicted in other plan components. Because of this, the goals and objectives are an important part of Oakwood’s new Comprehensive Plan.
The goals and objectives are divided into eight categories:
- Community Image and Character.
- Housing and Residential Areas.
- Commercial and Business Development.
- Transportation.
- Community Facilities.
- Parks and Open Space.
- Marketing and Promotion.
- Communication and Cooperation.
The goals and objectives presented below are based on: a) the goals and objectives of the 1989 Comprehensive Plan, b) advice and suggestions from City Council, Staff and the Comprehensive Planning Committee, and c) input received from the Oakwood community as a part of the community outreach activities.
It should be emphasized that all of the goals and objectives presented in this Section are essential to the new Comprehensive Plan. Following adoption of the Comprehensive Plan, it will be important for City Council, the Planning Commission, City Staff and the Comprehensive Planning Committee to work together in order to highlight key priorities that should be pursued within the next few years.
The objectives are presented in the form of Existing Objectives and New Objectives, and are defined as follows:
- EXISTING OBJECTIVES: Objectives that are currently being addressed and are considered to be of continuing importance. Many of these were identified in the 1989 Comprehensive Plan. The City should continue to pursue these objectives.
- NEW OBJECTIVES: These represent new or expanded initiatives that the City should pursue.