Planning director presents midpoint update on Chesapeake comprehensive plan

Planning Director McNamara presented a midpoint update on Chesapeake’s comprehensive plan, describing outreach completed in 2023 and the work underway in 2024. He said staff conducted demographic, housing and market reports, developed a branding and engagement plan, held five open houses and numerous pop-up events and formed seven stakeholder committees and ten geographic focus groups to gather input. "We've had a lot of great input from citizens, stakeholder groups," McNamara said.

McNamara identified seven focus areas: connectivity and infrastructure (with an emphasis on moving people rather than cars), economic development (business retention, housing-job balance and protecting development sites), environment and resilience (flooding, sea level rise, renewable energy and urban forest), growth management for rural areas, housing (including accessory dwelling units and missing-middle housing), placemaking and design, and governance and transparency (including participatory budgeting). He said staff will refine recommended policies, develop implementation strategies and metrics, update maps and character-district boundaries, and hold another round of community open houses in early October to present character-district work and solicit feedback.

Why it matters: McNamara emphasized that the update is intended to focus the plan so it yields actionable priorities rather than an unworkable laundry list. He said some ideas are already present in the current comprehensive plan and others were generated by consultants, stakeholder committees and public input. "We will be developing implementation strategies and metrics for tracking progress," McNamara said.

What to watch for next: staff said it will present refined policy recommendations and character-district maps at future meetings and again in public open houses in October for community review.