The Grand Marais Community Visioning and Comprehensive Plan Update is wrapping up phase one of the community engagement process. The online questionnaire available at www.GrandMaraisVisioning.org will be taken off line after January 31. So far over 500 questionnaires have been completed, including over 400 from Grand Marais and Cook County residents. “The committee is pleased with the response from the community,” said City Administrator Mike Roth. “They encourage those in the community who haven’t yet to please take the online questionnaire in the next week.”
In addition to the questionnaire, the steering committee has engaged the public through a variety of interactive tools at Ruby’s Pantry, the Cook County Whole Foods Co-op, the YMCA, the Senior Center, and many other locations. If you have a group of people who would like to be engaged in the project, contact City Administrator Mike Roth at (218) 387-1848 or cityhall@boreal.org.
Members of the steering committee met last week to review the demographic information from questionnaire responders. There was good representation from all age ranges except for 24 and younger. The largest response group was 55-64 at 24.4 percent, followed by 45-54 (20.1 percent), 25-34 (19 percent), 35-44 (16.7 percent), and 65-74 (13.9 percent). Over 80 percent of local responders are homeowners rather than renters. The committee will focus its efforts in the remaining time on getting more responses from youth and renters.
The city and consultant team will use the data collected from the public to discover community priorities. After analyzing the many responses, the team will begin preparing a community vision and values. The public will be asked to participate during the vision and values phase, and again when the comprehensive plan document begins to take form.
Information on engagement results and upcoming opportunities to participate are shared through the project website at www.GrandMaraisVisioning.org.
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