City moves ahead with master plan prioritization

By Grace Lovins

Birmingham Planning Board members continued their review of key actions to tackle from the recently adopted 2040 Master Plan during their Wednesday, March 13, meeting, finishing the list of key actions and preparing for a joint meeting with the city commission in June.

The Birmingham Plan 2040 was officially adopted by the city commission on May 22, 2023. With the plan adopted, the city is now moving forward with prioritizing the 130 recommendations and 33 key actions included in the plan for implementation.

Planning board members began discussing how to begin implementation in December of last year. Since December, the city’s planning staff and board members have reformatted the key actions table from the master plan, separating the table by which group would serve as the primary “agent” for that action, per the meeting packet.

Planning director Nick Dupuis briefed the board on the most recent iteration of the table during Wednesday night's meeting. Dupuis said he made the recommended changes based on the board’s feedback from the previous study session and transposed parts of the table into an action list for the board.

Dupuis also noted that letters had been sent to the city’s various boards that will ultimately be assigned the actions by the city commission. He said each board was given a deadline of May 1, 2024, so the planning board will have their responses to review before their joint meeting with the city commission in June.

In response to the discussion, Dupuis said he feels the planning board has tackled what the city commission has expected of them, but will prepare a memo on the matter after reviewing the commission and board’s last joint meeting from 2023.

The planning board had little feedback on city staff’s updated action list, and members will continue to focus on preparing for the joint meeting with the city commission over the next few meetings. Since the item was a study session, no formal action needed to be taken.

“Good job, and let’s keep moving forward,” said chair Scott Clein.