Vision Activities

Reaching consensus on community goals is a key milestone in a visioning process and substantially informs many future activities. Approval of goal statements by stakeholders or sponsors provides an early opportunity to establish a shared identity, to create a sense of purpose for the vision, or to identify common values. Goal statements are important outcomes that are continually transferred through the visioning process and utilized as inputs to the planning efforts of partners.

Document trends – Providing information on probable future trends helps participants in a visioning process assess their choices and determine preferences. Historic and projected data may be utilized to help frame problem statements, determine priorities, and develop alternatives.

Example: Puget Sound Regional Council's Vision 2040 effort developed regional trend and long term forecast information to help inform the process.

Develop goals and guiding principles – Building consensus around long term goals, objectives, or guiding principles may be challenging, but will provide significant direction for the visioning process. Community goals are often formed through interactive public input opportunities such as workshops and meetings.

Examples: Northeast Colorado’s visioning project was developed from regional core values and goals, as identified by resident survey respondents.

The research report for the Vision Guide contains extensive information about reaching stakeholders and tools that support stakeholder engagement. See Linking Community Visioning and Highway Capacity Planning in the PlanWorks Library Reports.