Tim Burgess supports a Comprehensive approach to Lake City

Back in the mid to late 90's, hundreds of Lake City residents and business owners worked many hours with the city to develop the Lake City Comprehensive Plan. The overarching theme of the plan was to “create an atmosphere of safety”. There was concern at that time that increasing density would bring urban problems to the area. The Plan was to mitigate them by providing physical improvements to our public areas and supporting positive commercial and recreational uses of our neighborhood.

Many of the requests were for sidewalks, open spaces, a new community center, ways of improving people’s perception of Lake City so they will get out of their cars and walk / shop, crime prevention through design, etc. All these are needed just as badly now as they were 15 years ago.

Our public spaces are where we form connections with our neighbors and we need to feel safe using them. The current conditions are an impediment to us forming a sense of community and identity.

At the Full Council meeting on Monday, a resolution was passed to review and further implement our neighborhood plans. Later that day, Councilmember Tim Burgess wrote a letter to city staff regarding Fire Station 39 and our neighborhood Comprehensive Plan.

The letter emphasized a comprehensive approach that honors our neighborhood plan as well as our feedback that we have given at the two Public Involvement Plan meetings ( here and here ) regarding the concentration of extremely low income housing and the lack of other much needed assets and services - like sidewalks, civic space, and recreational programming.

In addition, the letter directed the city to:

- Create a status report on our Comprehensive Plan ( full plan here / adoption matrix here ) to review what has and has not been completed as well as updating the city contacts for each action item. 

- Create a report on current efforts to increase safety, economic development, and housing opportunities for a variety of income levels ( mixed income model ). 

- Provide a timeline for an update to our Neighborhood Plan.

- Look at the Pierre Visioning efforts when updating the Plan. 


An update of this policy document will help us rethink and / or re - emphasize our needs in a way that the city can act in a coordinated effort with us to realize them. We have a significant opportunity here to participate in the development and governance of our neighborhood and we should seize it. Many things being discussed now have the potential to bring millions of dollars in capital investments to our neighborhood: the Pierre's stated intent to redevelop their property, the BEX IV ( if it passes ) will be providing millions of dollars for new schools and remodels of nearly every school in our area, and  the possibility that we would get a high priority for a new community center on the next Green Space Levy are all near realities that will significantly and positively impact our community.

Open publication - Free publishing - More comp plan