Public vision workshops

• 6:30-8:30 p.m. April 1, Auburn Public Library.

• 6:30-8:30 p.m. April 3, Park Avenue Elementary.

• 9:30-11:30 a.m. April 5, Fairview Elementary.

• 6:30-8:30 p.m. April 9, Sherwood Heights Elementary.

• 6:30-8:30 p.m. April 10, East Auburn Elementary.

Planning group seeks ideas

AUBURN – An effort to plot city needs and changes for the next 15 years begins looking for public input next month.

Members of the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee have scheduled a series of five meetings beginning April 1.

“We want to hear from the public, to find out what issues and opportunities they think will exist, and what they’d like Auburn to be like in the future,” said Co-chairman Richard Trafton.

The city’s last plan was written in 1995 and designed to guide planning and development decisions through 2005. It looked at all aspects of life in the city, including population, transportation trends, possible commercial development and public finances.

The committee began working in July on writing the new planning document. The effort so far has been creating a citywide inventory.

“We’ve looked at transportation, recreation, finances, water and sewer and a general inventory of assets and issues,” Trafton said. “Now we’re beginning to plot a vision for the future based on that situation.”

The committee will try to design a set of policies to guide the city from where it is to where people want it to go. The results should be presented to the City Council later this year, then sent to the State Planning Office for review.

“We haven’t started the really difficult work yet, and that’s translating the city’s vision into an actual policy document,” Trafton said. “We’ll do our best to get it done by then, but right now we’re just beginning work on that hard part.”