Citywide Strategic Plan 2024 - 2026

A welcoming and inclusive community that fosters positive neighborhood and community relations and ensures that all residents are secure and cared for during emergencies and natural disasters. Public infrastructure is well-maintained and reliable, and natural resources like water, air, and land are protected.

Strategy 1. Focus community safety efforts on reducing community harm at critical locations known for high incident rates or significant vulnerabilities.

1. Priority Action: Coordinate crime prevention and enforcement efforts in known high-crime areas utilizing the problem-solving policing model outlined in the Reimagining Policing Plan.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Continue to work with community partners to address underlying social determinants of health, including mental health, substance abuse, and other prioritized factors.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Prioritize transportation improvements that work to eliminate incidence of fatal and serious injury traffic crashes to achieve our community’s Vision Zero commitment.
   
   
4. Priority Action: Ensure and improve preventative safety (e.g., fire protection, hazardous materials handling, etc.) in housing through partnerships and coordination with key stakeholders (HHS, P&DS, Fire, Police, etc.).
   

Strategy 2. Advance efforts to enhance regional disaster prevention, preparedness, and response that leverage existing partnerships and prioritize city investments.

1. Priority Action: Expand efforts in preparedness and resilience strategies, including the completion, socialization, and implementation of the Community Wildfire Protection Plan for all community members.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Update the city’s disaster recovery plan with learnings from recent disasters.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Implement a city wildfire mitigation grant program for homes using the expanded climate tax dollars dedicated to wildfire resilience.
   

Strategy 3. Fully implement an organization-wide employee workplace safety program.

1. Priority Action: Identify and integrate employee workplace safety improvements, including infrastructure, training, identification of staff responsibilities and roles, and mental health and well-being initiatives across the entire organization in partnership with existing safety teams.

All Boulder residents are able to meet their critical needs, enjoy high levels of social, physical, and mental well-being, and have access to abundant recreational, cultural and educational opportunities in an environment that respects and celebrates human rights.

Strategy 4. Strengthen equity-focused programs that help meet community members’ basic needs, including mental, physical, and behavioral health, financial assistance, and access to services.

1. Priority Action: Review and improve application and verification processes for programs benefiting low-income community members, for a more dignified and efficient community member experience.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Sustain or increase service capacity among community-based programs and activities that promote health equity and wellbeing, such as food security and nutrition, behavioral health, child development and the ability to age in place.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Improve meaningful engagement with indigenous communities, including Tribal Nation partners to acknowledge a history of colonization and policy violations and provide enhanced connections to lands in Boulder.
   
   
4. Priority Action: Map, coordinate, and invest in equitable, inclusive, and community-based youth activities and services that promote health, well-being, and connection to services.

High-performing, safe, and well-maintained buildings and infrastructure that accommodate a diverse set of community needs for working, learning, playing, and living.

Strategy 5. Support and provide holistic and accessible programs and services to enable diverse individuals and families to live in Boulder.

1. Priority Action: Increase successful transition from homelessness to housing by identifying and broadening supportive housing opportunities and by expanding access to essential health and system navigation services.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Deepen collaborative strategies and services for legal and f inancial support to prevent evictions and to keep Boulder community members housed.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Collaboratively implement and fund local and regional strategies to increase affordable housing stock and other potential innovative strategies that could provide increased housing options for our unsheltered community.
   

Strategy 6. Define and establish Boulder’s 15-minute neighborhood model.

1. Priority Action: Define set of essential economic realities and ideal conditions, as well as zoning changes needed for success of 15-minute communities in Boulder.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Activate spaces, including city rights-of-way, for community, neighborhood, recreation and central gathering use through short-term programming and long-term land use changes.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Identify and prioritize key connections and relationships of commercial areas, cultural amenities, parks, trails, and open space areas as a part of the 15-minute neighborhood model.

A safe, accessible, and sustainable multimodal transportation system that connects people with each other and where they want to go. Open access to information is provided both physically and digitally to foster connectivity and promote community engagement.

Strategy 7. Invest in and maintain a transportation system with an array of multi-modal choices to reduce vehicle miles traveled and greenhouse gas emissions.

1. Priority Action: Implement programs and services that enhance equitable mobility.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Strengthen regional transportation collaboration with strategic partners (e.g. RTD, CDOT, Boulder County) to accelerate the reduction of single occupancy vehicle trips and connect people to opportunity.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Identify and implement key trail connections and access improvements to open space areas throughout the city that encourage multi-modal options for access.
   

Strategy 8. Improve accessibility to city meetings, information, and programs through equitable engagement.

1. Priority Action: Fully integrate the use of the Racial Equity Instrument (REI) in city project management and policy decision making.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Provide individuals with limited or no English proficiency with meaningful access to information, services, programs, activities, and decision-making processes.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Ensure full compliance with state requirements on digital accessibility including revising critical internal and external digital content to meet WCAG 2.2 accessibility guidelines and development of continuous training for staff.
   
   
4. Priority Action: Expand and provide appropriate resources for the Community Connectors program.
   
   
5. Priority Action: Implement recommendations related to city boards and commissions management practices including recruitment of board members, accessibility of meetings, and engagement practices.

A sustainable, thriving, and equitable community that benefits from and supports clean energy; preserves and responsibly uses the earth’s resources; and cares for ecosystems.

Strategy 9. Increase community and ecosystem resilience to the current and future impacts of climate change.

1. Priority Action: Relaunch our adaptable, long-term, and holistic resilience strategy—that encompasses economic, environmental, community, and infrastructure components to complement implementation of resource and ecosystem management plans.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Develop and implement a city-wide extreme heat management strategy.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Design and launch tools that align the city’s climate actions with community members most impacted from climate-related risks.
   

Strategy 10. Continue advancement toward the city’s goal of an eighty percent reduction in emissions and the community’s goal of a seventy percent reduction by 2030.

1. Priority Action: Expand efforts that eliminate carbon from (“decarbonize”) the built environment, vehicles, and operations and replace fossil fuel-based energy systems
   
   
2. Priority Action: Prioritize climate-related elements in city-owned facilities and operationalize key climate-related elements of the Facilities Master Plan.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Implement a city fleet electrification strategy and related community accessible electric charging infrastructure.
   

Strategy 11. Prioritize sustainability values through new and existing policies.

1. Priority Action: Revise the City’s purchasing policies to reflect our priorities for underserved businesses and sustainably sourced materials and products.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Update the Boulder Valley Comprehensive Plan and other city planning documents to minimize environmental impacts, support biodiversity conservation, reduce emissions and increase community resilience.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Develop policies that reduce the embodied carbon in the built environment through the use of low-carbon alternatives and adaptive reuse.

A local government that provides an excellent customer experience, responsibly manages the city’s assets, and makes data-driven decisions informed by community engagement inclusive of those who have been historically excluded from government programs and services. The city organization exemplifies an employer of choice with policies and programs to support employee inclusion and well-being.

Strategy 12. Implement organizational and financial best practices to continuously improve asset management, customer experience, and project and program performance.

1. Priority Action: Operationalize the citywide customer experience principles, including through the implementation of the “one-stop shop” center for the Western City Campus.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Establish a citywide project management office to help support, coordinate, and lead effective project management.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Prioritize and deploy a citywide asset management system that informs the annual capital improvement program.
   
   
4. Priority Action: Analyze core service levels, performance, and determine service level targets.
   
   
5. Priority Action: Develop a long-term financial strategy that guides responsible f iscal decision-making and complements the full implementation of outcome-based budgeting.
   

Strategy 13. Improve retention by investing in employee growth, leadership development, and empowerment.

1. Priority Action: Catalog job description/employment requirements and competencies and ensure the regular review of compensations and related rewards structures.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Develop a communications strategy and platform that reaches all employees in the organization.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Provide expanded training for supervisors, including on how to provide quality feedback and set measurable goals for their teams.
   
   
4. Priority Action: Provide training and reinforcement related to the organizational leadership philosophy and values and emphasize employee recognition efforts.
   
   
5. Priority Action: Deploy effective succession planning to ensure continuity of institutional knowledge and the effective delivery of services and programs within the city and for stakeholders while providing for clear career paths for employees.

A healthy, accessible, resilient, and sustainable economy based on innovation, diversity, and collaboration that benefits all residents, businesses, and visitors.

Strategy 14. Enhance collaborative efforts to support an inclusive, healthy, sustainable, and resilient local economy that builds on core economic strengths, promotes economic mobility, and aligns with community values and priorities.

1. Priority Action: Explore policy and funding options that could enable continuation of direct cash assistance projects.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Explore increasing the minimum wage for people who work in Boulder, as part of a collaborative regional initiative.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Update the Economic Sustainability Strategy to reflect changes in local economy and business climate and align with other city strategies and plans.
   
   
4. Priority Action: Develop and implement a plan to increase awareness, availability, and accessibility of business resources and support offered by city and community partners.
   
   
5. Priority Action: Enhance efforts to promote Boulder as an ideal location to work and to start or grow a business through coordinated messaging and materials.
   
   
6. Priority Action: Update and implement the Citywide Retail Strategy to reflect emerging trends, meet community needs and leverage market potential to increase sales tax revenue.
   

Strategy 15. Streamline processes for housing, parking, infrastructure, land use, and events that tie directly to priority community outcomes.

1. Priority Action: Identify and implement ways to reduce bureaucracy, improve efficiency, and facilitate quicker approvals for initiatives that align with and enhance the City’s priorities related to sustainability, safety, economic vitality, and community well-being.
   
   
2. Priority Action: Develop a community engagement approach (inform and outreach focused) that provides clear communication about how the streamlined permitting process benefits all City stakeholders.
   
   
3. Priority Action: Develop ways to make it easier for individuals and businesses to understand and navigate city processes.