South DSM News

The Pleasant Hill City Council in Iowa recently announced that the firm Confluence will be at the helm of the city's new economic development plans.

City staff explained their agenda included approving a contract for professional services to develop and implement a new comprehensive plan, which has not been updated since 2015. After reviewing various candidates, the city chose Confluence for the economic development plans. The city will be putting together a Steering Committee providing diverse representation from the community through citizens, business interests, and elected and appointed officials. Principal representative and Vice President Chris Shiers of Confluence was at the meeting to discuss the work they will be doing over the next several months. 

“And so with this, we are proposing to have a steering committee that we hope you will appoint, and we are planning to have seven meetings with them,” said Shiers. “We’ll have biweekly check-in meetings with your city staff, will have two joint workshops with yourselves and your planning commission. We'll have a public workshop and then a second public open house. We will have two public hearings, three special events, 16 to 20 stakeholder interviews, and at least three to four focus group meetings. 

"So that's 35 to 40 meetings, as well as an additional approximate 35 meetings with your staff. And so really wanting to have a robust public engagement process.”

Along with the public hearings, the planning process will include special events like community meetings, open houses and surveys. Shiers estimates that creating the new plan will be a 16-month process with four phases: a project kickoff and initial research and analysis, public input, plan drafting, and adopting the plan. There will also be an interactive website for residents to easily access and give input on the plan.

The council expressed their gratitude for the new partnership with Confluence and for the attention to detail that the process has involved. They were also eager for public engagement, saying they wanted to have as diverse a population from their 10,000 residents as possible. Shiers agreed, saying that the special events and diversifying the Steering Committee will be important in this regard.