Nassau County leaders have been asking residents what they want the county to be when it grows up. Though the county has a vision plan through 2032, growth of residents and visitors has driven the need for a new vision plan. With the 2050 plan, the vision team is going more in depth.
“We’ve grown so much and so much has changed that we’ve recognized that we needed to rewrite the vision plan,” Director of Strategic Advancement in Nassau County Brandy Carvalho said. She said the vision plan “… kind of gives us the, ‘who do we want to be when we grow up?’”
On April 30, the Planning Advisory Committee met to receive updates on the progress of Vision 2050 from the group of consultants, planners and other participants making the plan. The PAC heard project status, engagement findings, existing conditions and how the vision team will move forward.
Building Vision 2050 includes five phases and is well into the second phase, moving into the third.
Phase One set the foundation and analyzed the existing conditions. This phase was considered complete at the end of April.
The team gathered a multitude of information including demographics, population projections throughout different areas of the county, current and future land-use projections, potential environmental impacts, travel patterns of residents, the county’s roadway and travel networks, grocery access, county government functioning and public access to information.
Among the data collected was a projection for population growth up to 2050, expected to nearly double in size.
Now, Phase Two is almost complete, which builds the vision by engaging with the public to identify community values. The majority of the surveys for the project are closed, but community engagement will continue into summer through the county’s vision tents, such as the Nassau County Opening of the Beaches event on May 18 and the Fourth of July celebration of the towns of Hilliard and Callahan as well as any potential community popups.
The presentation to the PAC included some of the results of the community engagement surveys. More than 1,000 people responded to the Community Vision Survey. More than 100 people responded to the young adult survey, ages 14-29. The mail survey received more than 400 responses and the municipal survey of county leaders received the input of more than 20 county leaders. The visitors’ survey remains open. There have been 15 community popup events so far taking input from more than500 participants. One of the vision tents from January received 600 people’s input. The team also has conducted seven different Discovery Discussion aimed at particular groups of people.
Carvalho said the 2032 plan did not include as much community engagement. “This is an extremely robust way of getting community input,” she said.
At one of the previous vision tents, the vision team did an exercise asking residents to describe Nassau County today and what they want it to be in 2050.
Kendall Howard of Halff Associates, Inc., one of the consultant firms on Vision 2050, said, “Oftentimes when we do these types of exercises with communities, typically the current words tend to trend more negative, but for Nassau, the majority of the current and future words were both very positive.”
Through the survey, the community expressed interest in growth as well as concern in areas such as transportation, natural conservation, arts and culture and tourism. The input is meant to give county leaders a broad perspective of community members’ desires and needs moving into the future.
Phase Three will establish a “growth and opportunities framework,” Phase Four will prepare a draft for the plan, and Phase Five will implement the final plan. Implementation is expected to happen in Winter 2024-25.
“We’ll have a draft in December for people to see, we’ll unveil it in December at the last bicentennial event,” Carvalho said.
After the presentation, County Manager Taco Pope said, “One of the things I appreciate about the approach that Elizabeth and the planning team as well as the consultant team has taken is … it’s very broad in nature. I know that some of you were involved the last go around, and I feel like the approach is lot more in depth. There’s a lot more analysis to arrive at data that can allow decision-makers to set public policy that really pushes the community forward in a manner that’s fitting, not only with what the current residents are articulating they want, but also looking into the future … to meet the needs for generations to come.”
The Vision 2050 website, nassaufl2050.com, states that the “planning process and the resulting policies will promote and manage growth, protect and enhance key areas of importance, help the county to accommodate future trends and provide the necessary baseline for an update to the county’s Comprehensive Plan.”
To get involved with Vision 2050, visit www.nassaufl2050.com/engage.
achandler@fbnewsleader.com