A new survey will be launched as part of ‘Livable Frederick.’
Frederick County residents are being asked to help chart a vision for the future of their community. County Executive Jan Gardner announced on Thursday that a survey would soon be up and running for citizens to offer their input on where they see the county 40 years from now. “We really want to reach out and create a new trend, a new methodology for shaping our future,” she says. “We want to make sure that we capture the broader issues and use new platforms such as blogs and social media in addition to what we’ve done traditionally.”
This survey is part of the update of the County’s Comprehensive Plan which began last year. Called “Livable Frederick,” Gardner says it will offer a vision of the future, and not just be about land use and zoning issues. “And I think we first really want to say what are the things we want to protect? What are the cultural amenities that we care about that we want to preserve? How important is it for us to have agriculture be viable for the future? And then, how do we accommodate population growth? How do we make sure we have places where people want to live and work,” she says.
The community vision this survey is trying to create will represent the county’s collective dreams, aspirations and values. Major issues such as schools, workforce housing, a rapidly growing senior population, transportation systems, active and healthy communities,water and sewer for residential housing developments, preserving agricultural and lands and more will also be addressed, according to a news release from the county.
The survey will be launched at www.LivableFrederick.org. on Monday, May 16th,and be available through September 16th. After that, a vision for the future will be drafted for further review in the future.
Citizens can access the survey through computers, mobile devices and local libraries. It can also be filled out with pen and paper, Gardner says.
“We want to make sure that Frederick is livable. We want to make sure our plan for the future will talk about how people can live here, and how they can work. What businesses will have here. And to make sure that things we value, like our open space and our cultural amenities, are here for the future as well,” says Gardner.