Prioritization of master plan actions continues
By Grace Lovins
The Birmingham planning board continued preparing for the June 10 joint meeting between them and the city commission by discussing the prioritization of key actions listed in the recently adopted 2040 master plan during their Wednesday, May 22, meeting.
Birmingham’s master plan, formally The Birmingham Plan 2040, was officially adopted by the city commission almost a year ago during the May 22, 2023, commission meeting. Planning board members have been working on prioritizing a list of key actions and recommendations in the master plan since December.
Back in December, the board agreed that the city’s zoning ordinances and parking should be considered top priorities. Since then, the board and city planning director Nick Dupuis have worked on compiling a reformatted version of the ‘Summary of Key Actions’ table included in the plan which separates each action or recommendation based on the “primary” group working on it.
The table was circulated to almost all the city’s boards, committees and commissions aside from the city commission and environmental sustainability committee before the board’s Wednesday, May 8, meeting. Dupuis explained that the groups generally said that they are on board with what the planning board put together.
During the May 22 meeting, board members again reviewed the draft memorandum prepared for the joint meeting and the tables created for each of the city’s boards. Board member Robin Boyle suggested Dupuis and the board keep the presentation to the city commission simple by creating a powerpoint presentation that has a list of the topics rather than each individual item included in the table.
Boyle said it could help center the focus between the board and commission to stay on track with selecting which topics should take priority.
No formal action was taken during the meeting, but the board will continue to prepare for the joint meeting between them and the city commission on Monday, June 10.
