Fredericksburg City officials review plan to turn master plans into an annual, accountable ‘rolling’ strategic plan

Fredericksburg City Council convened a special meeting to review a proposed annual "rolling" strategic plan intended to consolidate multiple master plans and create an accountable task list tied to the city's budget process.

Staff presenter (Speaker 2) said the rolling strategic plan would ‘‘bring together a number of different plans and documents’’ into a single place so council, staff and the public can track projects, priorities and progress year to year. He noted the city's comprehensive plan was adopted March 19, 2024 and said the strategic plan would borrow the vision and objectives from that document while adding a clearer implementation layer.

Why it matters: Councilmembers and staff told the meeting that although the city has many master plans—water, wastewater, transportation, drainage and parks and recreation—those plans historically lacked clear monitoring and assigned accountability. Speaker 2 said the capital improvement plan tied to those master plans contains ‘‘somewhere in the neighborhood of, $300,000,000 in projects’’ and that references to project lists and responsibilities are often scattered across different documents.

Staff also cited an example from the water system: Speaker 2 said the water/wastewater/reclaimed-water master plan has guided about $35,000,000 in infrastructure investments since 2018. Council members used that example to illustrate how the rolling plan could show which projects are planned, funded and scheduled across multiple years.

A key technical change discussed was a Unified Development Code (UDC). Planner/Staff (Speaker 7) described the UDC as a consolidation of subdivision, zoning and development ordinances designed to streamline processes and resolve legacy inconsistencies in the zoning code. The UDC work was described as part of the multi-year regulatory updates that the strategic plan would reference.

Tracking and transparency: Staff demonstrated an OpenGov module they already subscribe to and said it can be used to tie strategic goals to budget line items, show project status (started/completed), and run performance reports. Speaker 10, who described the OpenGov strategic initiatives module, said the tool can serve as a ‘‘system of record’’ for year-over-year strategic planning and allow departments to connect budget worksheets directly to strategic goals.

Process and timeline: Staff proposed an engagement schedule running through April that would include special meetings, high-level reviews of each master plan, a refresh of council community goals and a final-draft review in April. Speaker 2 said the council would approve the rolling strategic plan annually by resolution and that the plan would serve as the official kickoff to the budget process in January–February so priorities are set before budget deliberations that culminate in September.

Public engagement and next steps: Representatives from the Citizens' University attended the meeting; participant Chelsea Scott said her class plans to adopt a task from the strategic-priority list as a year-long project to research, advocate and recruit volunteers. Several council members urged that the plan focus on clear, staff-assigned accountability for each action item and that older documents included as background be carefully curated so the rolling plan remains actionable.

What’s next: Staff will schedule the special meetings through April, refine which master plans are incorporated, confirm any additional costs for upgraded OpenGov performance features, and return to the council with a draft resolution and an online project dashboard for review.