The Appleton City Plan Commission on Oct. 8 voted to approve the proposed adoption of Plan Appleton, a comprehensive rewrite of the city's comprehensive plan, and forwarded the plan and associated resolution to the Common Council for consideration on Nov. 19.

Planner Lindsey gave an overview of the draft plan's restructuring into an introduction, goals (with metrics and strategies), an implementation chapter, and an appendix containing data and subarea plans. Lindsey said the update carries forward smaller-scale corridor and subarea plans (Downtown Plan, Fox River Corridor Plan, College North Neighborhood Plan) and adds new subarea work for Richmond/Northland, South Oneida and Wisconsin Avenue.

Staff summarized public engagement results and changes made after the draft release: roughly 42–43% of respondents provided positive feedback with no changes requested, about 43% were general comments, and roughly 12% resulted in clarifications or minor edits; staff reported that clarifications included replacing an ambiguous term "nearby" with "abutting" in neighborhood district descriptions and adding clearer labels to housing charts and data (data pulled in 2023). Two actions that had been high priorities in subarea plans — creating a complete set of street amenities (lighting, shading, seating) and conducting a comprehensive traffic study for subareas — were moved from high to medium priority based on public input.

Commissioners and Alder Fenton praised staff and community engagement. "This is a document that is readable, that's clear, it's well organized," Alder Fenton said. The Plan Commission's approval will be transmitted to the Common Council; staff invited additional public comment at the council hearing scheduled for Nov. 19.