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Staff outline next steps for regional comprehensive plan after wide public engagement
Summary
Community planning staff reported about 2,000 people participated in earlier outreach and outlined a schedule for draft implementation actions, a February public survey, a spring CPAC meeting, a July public review draft and an adoption process starting later in 2026 and finishing in 2027.
Community planning staff updated the Fairbanks North Star Borough Planning Commission on Jan. 13 about progress on the regional comprehensive plan and next steps for community outreach. Kellen Spielman and Katie Whiteside told the commission that about 2,000 people participated in the first round of surveys and comments and that staff and consultants have distilled those responses into draft goals and implementation ideas.
Whiteside said staff are now in an implementation-strategy phase and plan a follow-up public survey in February to test specific draft actions and priorities. She said the team hopes to publish a public-review draft around July and begin a formal adoption process that would start in late 2026 and continue into 2027.
Spielman noted staff held multiple public touchpoints—six in-person workshops, one virtual workshop, booths at community events including the GoWinter Expo and downtown market—and that consulting partners digitized and analyzed sticky-note comments and open-house feedback. He described recurring themes, including energy costs and the community’s northern-climate advantages, and said staff will convene the Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee (CPAC) later this month to refine draft implementation items.
Commissioners praised the outreach and offered suggestions for refining the vision statement to make it more place-based and visual. Spielman said staff will bring refined materials back to the commission and that the next presentation to the commission will likely be in the spring.
What’s next: staff expects a CPAC meeting later this month, a February public survey on draft implementation items, a public review draft in July, and the adoption process beginning in late 2026.
