Durham council holds strategic-planning workshop; members debate wording on economic goals and where housing fits

Durham City Council convened a special strategic-planning workshop to draft high-level goals and three‑year priorities for a new strategic plan, with staff and consultants collecting council input for further refinement and community engagement.

City Manager Beau Ferguson opened the meeting and asked members to focus on the session, reminding them of the scale of what the plan will guide: “You have 2,600 employees,” and “You just adopted a $772,000,000 budget,” he said, adding, “My commitment to you as a council is that we will follow the plan that you eventually adopt.”

City staff and consultants framed the exercise as a top‑down review of goals and a bottoms‑up collection of priorities. Sherry Metcalfe of Budget Management Services told the council “today, we are all about big goals” and described the multi-step process staff will use: council input at the workshop, follow-up community engagement, a second council session in February and a proposed strategic plan in May. Consultant Warren Miller of Fountainworks explained the terminology the group would use and how staff will convert council “priorities” into objective statements for the plan. “When we talk about goals today, think of these as your overarching areas of focus that are gonna help move you towards your vision,” Miller said.

The council worked in rotating station exercises, posting priorities on flip charts and answering three questions at each goal station about what the city should do more of, less of or differently. Staff captured a wide range of proposed priorities under the existing five goal buckets: economic prosperity, safety, connected/engaged/inclusive communities, innovative/high-performing organization, and a thriving/vibrant environment.

Council members generally agreed on the topics they want the plan to address — restoring upward economic mobility, supporting entrepreneurship and small business, workforce development, housing affordability and stability, infrastructure delivery and environmental sustainability, plus community engagement and arts/culture as an economic driver. But members differed on how to name and organize the top-level goals.

Several council members questioned the phrase “shared economic prosperity,” saying it can be read as stigmatizing or vague. Some favored keeping a broad outcome-oriented label (for example, “broad‑based prosperity”) while others argued for language emphasizing movement and opportunity, such as “economic mobility.” Council discussion repeatedly returned to the distinction between a broad goal label and the more targeted priorities or initiatives that staff will develop to achieve it.

Members debated whether housing should be a separate, stand‑alone goal or remain under the environmental/built‑environment bucket. Some members urged an explicit housing goal because housing has dominated recent council work and community concern; others preferred keeping a single “vibrant built and natural environment” goal that would explicitly call out housing, infrastructure and climate considerations underneath it.

There was also discussion about whether “innovative and high‑performing organization” works as a top‑level strategic goal or reads better as an internal value that supports the city’s outward objectives. Several council members and staff suggested reframing that area so it reads as delivery of high‑quality city services — an outward, resident‑facing formulation — while retaining a focus on making internal operations more efficient.

No formal actions, motions or votes were taken during the workshop. Instead, council members asked staff to synthesize the ideas gathered at the stations, resolve overlaps, and return drafts for additional council review and community outreach. Staff told the council they will prepare a clearer set of goal wordings and a prioritized list of candidate priorities for a follow-up meeting and for public engagement.

Council members used the session to surface specific priorities they want staff to translate into objectives and initiatives: business retention and expansion in key sectors, easier pathways for entrepreneurs to start and scale businesses, workforce development and K‑12/post‑secondary alignment, expanded affordable housing and homeownership pathways, preservation of open space and climate resilience measures, and strengthening arts and culture as an economic sector.

Next steps: staff and consultants will synthesize the council’s input, return with revised goal language and a narrowed set of priorities, and run a community engagement phase before the council finalizes objectives. The city manager reiterated staff’s commitment to align future budgets and departmental work plans with the plan the council adopts.

There were no votes or ordinance actions recorded at the session.