Council debates resident representation in Sustainable Destination Management Plan; staff to refine implementation language

Councilors on Aug. 3 continued deliberations over the Sustainable Destination Management Plan, with several members praising the document’s stakeholder momentum and its role in guiding transient lodging tax priorities while others pushed for clearer language in the plan itself to ensure meaningful resident representation.

One councilor said they were "disappointed" that the plan did not meaningfully accommodate perspectives of residents who do not work in the tourist industry and said the absence of explicit resident representation in the plan left them unwilling to support final adoption as written. Staff responded that the implementation phase (for example, a Destination Stewardship Collaborative) will address how residents are included operationally, but they invited targeted wording suggestions that could be incorporated quickly.

Council direction was to preserve momentum with stakeholders while staff and interested councilors will work between meetings on specific language changes to ensure resident voices are visible in the plan document and to return the refined language without delaying initial implementation steps. One councilor said they would vote against the plan as currently drafted, while others said they were close to agreement if the suggested wording changes are made.

Next steps: staff asked for specific, short feedback to incorporate draft language edits that would be returned at the next meeting or included in the implementation materials so the Destination Stewardship Collaborative can launch without losing stakeholder momentum.