Who We Are: Identity, Vision, and Strategic Planning

Strategic planning best practices

In the past, cities typically created ten-year strategic plans, but in recent years - recognizing that the municipal government landscape changes more quickly than it once did - many have reduced that to five years.

The Rowlett Strategic Plan under which we're operating was developed in 2018. That was "only" seven years ago, but it has been a long and volatile seven years. Our plan was created prior to the pandemic, which changed the world - and for many of us, changed our perspectives and priorities - in so many ways. I believe it's time to take another look at our vision, mission, goals and operating objectives and add some precise key performance indicators to measure our progress.

Over the past year, I have been deeply involved in the Rockwall County strategic planning process. The County set out to develop a plan from scratch, aided by various consultants. They brought together the Commissioners Court, elected officials from all the cities that lie partially or entirely in the county, representatives from other entities such as school districts, hospitals, and non-profit organizations, along with a diverse group of interested citizens.

We have held numerous meetings, conducted many public forums, published online surveys, and collected data and input from many sources. It has been challenging at times, and a lot of hard work, but also educational and rewarding. Through that process, I have many takeaways that I believe are applicable to our city and its next strategic plan.

The first step is to look inward and define who we are as a community and what we want to become over the next five to ten years.

The Current Plan

Let's deconstruct some of the language in our current plan:

A well-planned lakeside community: How do we measure the quality of planning, and has that ship (mostly) already sailed? Our city "just grew that way" in many areas, and in retrospect it would have been preferable to have done some things differently.
Quality neighborhoods: What does this mean? How do we define a "quality" neighborhood?
Distinctive amenities: An amenity is a desirable or useful feature. We need to get more specific here (not in the vision statement, but somewhere in the plan).
Diverse employment: This one at least has a clear meaning - jobs requiring different skill sets in different fields at different levels of compensation.
Cultural charm: Charm is subjective.

There's nothing wrong with any of these phrases, but - other than the "lakeside" reference - do they differ from those in dozens of other cities' vision statement? And the "live, work, and play" terminology is everywhere. From right across the lake in Rockwall all the way to Anchorage, Alaska, cities have adopted that as their motto.

I believe it's time to take a fresh look at our strategic plan, to think outside the box and step out of our comfort zone, to drop the vague, canned terminology and create a new roadmap that takes into account our city's unique history, its particular geography, its population makeup, its special character, and everything that shapes the Rowlett of today as we build on all that to create the Rowlett of the future.

To do that, we need the involvement not only of the city council and staff, not just of a strategic planning committee, but of as many of those who live and do business here as possible. As mayor, I would spearhead that effort.