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Cresco council adopts updated comprehensive plan after public comments
Summary
The Cresco City Council adopted a 10–20 year comprehensive plan on June 15, 2026, following public comments and a planner's presentation on priorities including housing, walkability and infrastructure; staff said non-substantive edits and data corrections will be incorporated.
The Cresco City Council on June 15 unanimously adopted a new comprehensive plan that lays out community goals and a 10- to 20-year future land-use framework.
Michelle Barnes, a regional planner with the regional planning commission, told the council the plan is the product of more than a year of engagement including a steering committee, focus groups, an open house and an online and paper survey that yielded roughly 300 responses. She said the plan focuses on community culture, economic development with an emphasis on workforce housing and child care, walkability and addressing aging infrastructure, especially stormwater and water/wastewater systems.
"It is a very public engagement rich process," Barnes said, summarizing the outreach and noting the future land use map is advisory and not regulatory. She explained the plan's categories (neighborhood residential, medium-density residential, commercial corridor, industrial, community facilities, parks and mixed-use downtown core) and said staff will provide guidance if zoning updates are later needed to implement the map.
At the public hearing, resident Amy Buska delivered three pages of written comments highlighting typographical errors and several data points she said should be reviewed. Council members and staff said they would incorporate non-substantive edits and attempt to reconcile any data concerns where possible. "If you guys want a couple minutes that's the time you want," one councilmember said when asked about distributing Buska's comments for review. Barnes told the council she would work with staff to incorporate clarifications and annotated notes where appropriate.
The council voted to adopt the plan and asked staff to circulate a clean copy after the planner integrates the submitted corrections. Council members said the document will serve as guidance for future zoning and development decisions and as a reference for pursuing housing and infrastructure projects identified in the plan.
What happens next: city staff will publish an updated version that incorporates the reviewed changes and provide it to the planning and zoning commission as a guiding document for any regulatory updates or rezoning requests that follow adoption.
