In April, at the National APA Conference in Philadelphia, a Verdunity client, the City of Sweetwater, was honored with a Vernon Deines Honor Award for the The Sweetwater, Texas 2022 Comprehensive Plan. Sweetwater is a rural city of around 11,000 people located in the Big Country region of West Central Texas. The Plan is representative of the first steps toward meaningful planning efforts the City of Sweetwater has committed to undertake. It is the first comprehensive plan ever adopted in Sweetwater and was crafted with that in mind. From cover to cover, the Plan was conceived as something that could guide not only staff but community partners and citizens toward a more resilient future.

The Plan answers the reader's 'why?' at every opportunity, providing a shared understanding of the intricacies of municipal governance. This, we believe, can help in the interactions between citizens looking to improve Sweetwater and the civil servants who work tirelessly to do just that. The Plan also adopts an approach to implementation that is similarly attuned to working from the bottom up. With goals tied directly to the aspirations the community articulated through a number of engaging public events, citizens will see themselves in the path forward. The actions called for by the plan are incremental and approachable for the City, but also for citizens who want to be involved in this change. They are clearly linked to the community input collected throughout the process.

The Plan document was crafted to communicate simply – visually – the fiscal realities that Sweetwater faces, as well as provide aspirational content that reminds the community what they are working toward. It is a document that matches the quality and design of major cities’ high-budget comprehensive plan efforts but is scaled to maximize the budget for a community of 11,000. This makes it both attractive and functional. Instead of focusing on broad, general goals from a high level, it establishes a path for clear and consistent decisions and the inclusion of local partners. It sets the stage for incremental improvements that activate long-forgotten spaces and a neighborhood-centric approach.

You can check out the The Sweetwater, Texas 2022 Comprehensive Plan here.