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Ashland, Wisconsin
Planning Process and Comprehensive Plan

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September 2015

Kennedy Smith

Karen Pooley, PhD Charles Buki

Thomas Eddington, AICP

Downtown Economics

Econometrics

Planning and Design

Strategy

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Ashland, Wisconsin
Planning Process and Comprehensive Plan
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September 2015

Roles and Responsibilities and Timeline

Potential Schedule

czb

SC

PC

CC

Community

Oct 1 - Apr 30

May 1 - Jun 30

Roles

City Staff

Provides

Does

Technical Expertise

Analyzes approaches and data

Engages the community

Steering Committee

Informal Authority
Explains the process and emerging plans

Plan Commission

Review

Advises the city council

Council

Formal Authority

Adopts (or votes down) draft plan

czb

All the Above

Guides the community + process

Community Engagement

Steering Committee Work

1. Select Co-Chairs
2. Develop an off-month meeting schedule/calendar
3. Break into 11 groups of 1-2 persons
Link ea a member of the city council
4. Plan for hosting (w city council person) 4 kitchen table
conversation in the community of 6-12/13 ish people each
5. 11x4 = 44 outreach meetings
Student support for each
Notice + Scribing
6. Big commitment for Phase 1 Analysis/Outreach
(12 75 minute meetings through end of February)
Meeting w Thomas avg 1/month now until February (4)
Conducting outreach (4)
Meeting in off month (4)
7. Similar commitment for Phase 2 (Community Review)

Stakeholders

Stakeholders

Stakeholders

Stakeholders

Stakeholders

Steering Committee

Consultants

Technical Staff

Values

Priorities

Steering Committee

Assets

Target Market

Steering Committee + Staff together to hold

kitchen table conversations together
Each month, czb will meet w staff and steering committee
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- In the off weeks between, staff and steering committee will meet with
residents and business stakeholders in a series of facilitated, small
kitchen table conversations held in Ashland homes, around the
dining room table or in the living room or around the fireplace or BBQ.
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- These will be about 75-90 min in length, and mostly listening to

responses to the same pointed questions consultants are putting to
staff and steering committee; students (if available and willing) will
scribe; we will send talking points to your co-chairs
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- Takeaways from these conversations will be communicate czb

Steering Committee + Staff together to hold

kitchen table conversations together
October
November
December
January

What are our core values?

What assets can we not afford to squander?
What should be our very top priorities? Specifically.
Who should be our target market?
Reaction to early/preliminary draft outline
Reaction to modified early draft
Implementation Challenges

NOT a to do list (plan)more of a how do we decide

about ______ when we cant anticipate _______

NOT a to do list (plan)more of a how do we decide

about ______ when we cant anticipate _______

NOT a to do list (plan)more of a how do we decide

about ______ when we cant anticipate _______

NOT a to do list (plan)more of a how do we decide

about ______ when we cant anticipate _______

NOT a to do list (plan)more of a how do we decide

about ______ when we cant anticipate _______

All properties tell important stories

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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.

Who is moving in and out

Who is staying
Who is investing and disinvesting
What your retail dollars look like
What your economic base is
How well you govern
What your governing priorities are

Planning 101

Notes on Planning for Ashland, Wisconsin

For Comprehensive Plans to be of any real value to a community,
they must have three tightly choreographed components

1. Get the Big Things Right

2. Anticipate What May Be Coming
3. Establish Guidelines for Making Decisions

TRADITIONAL APPROACH

2016

Together, OUR JOB is to

Create This Document

x x
x
xx

TRADITIONAL APPROACH

2016

Together, OUR JOB is to

Create This Document

1. Get the Big Things Right

2. Anticipate What May Be Coming
3. Establish Guidelines for Making Decisions

What are the core beliefs held by the Ashland community?

What is the community willing to fight for and can agree on?
What is the community to pay for itself ?

These are your priorities

2016

A good comprehensive plan is

your priorities in actionable form

1. Get the Big Things Right

What are the big things?

2. Anticipate What May Be Coming

What do we know?

3. Establish Guidelines for Making Decisions

How will we decide?

What are the core beliefs held by the Ashland community?

What is the community willing to fight for and can agree on?
What is the community to pay for itself ?

These are your priorities

2016

A good comprehensive plan is

your priorities in actionable form

2016

A good comprehensive plan is

your priorities in actionable form

So How Will We Create That?

So How Will We Create That?

The Pulse of Ashland
Through On-Going
Dialogue

2016
Steering Committee
+
Consultant Team

Data
and
Expertise

A good comprehensive plan is

your priorities in actionable form

We will ask questions to help push

the Ashland community to clarify
What should Ashlands priorities be ?

Why are they your priorities ?

What to do and in what order

How to implement what youve prioritized

How to prioritize when the unexpected arises

What are your core beliefs ?

What planning principles will guide future decisions

Who is your target market ?

What do they want?

We will ask questions to help push

the Ashland community to clarify
What should Ashlands priorities be ?
What to do and in what order
The things to do - the housing strategy, the downtown
strategy, the waterfront strategy, the roads strategy, etc
Why are they your priorities ?

How to implement what youve prioritized

How to prioritize when the unexpected arises

Your decision-making guide when
something out of the blue comes up

What are your core beliefs ?

What planning principles will guide future decisions

Your North Star - what you are pointing towards - the

basis of the community you want to build
Who is your target market ?
What do they want?
The future Ashlands stakeholders

A Version of What We Are Going to Create

Comprehensive Plan
ASHLAND

A. History
- Where we are - baseline conditions
- How we got here - history
- Do nothing differently strategy - business as usual
B. Foundation
- Communitys core values and vision
- Principles that will guide our decisions
- Target market
C. Plan
- Communitys priorities
D. Regulatory Framework
- Land use plan
- Zoning
E. Appendices
- State requirements
- Data
- Housing
- Parks
- Roads
- Fiscal
- Economic

What We Are Going to Create

Comprehensive Plan
ASHLAND

A. History
- Where we are - baseline conditions
- How we got here - history
- Do nothing differently strategy - business as usual
B. Foundation
- Communitys core values and vision
- Principles that will guide our decisions
- Target market
C. Plan
Core
- Communitys priorities
D. Regulatory Framework
- Land use plan
- Zoning
E. Appendices
- State requirements Data
- Housing
- Parks
- Roads
- Fiscal
- Economic

What We Are Going to Create

All About
Choices + Tradeoffs

Comprehensive Plan
ASHLAND

What we in Ashland want to

create and enjoy (get)
and
what we are willing to do to
get it (give)

What We Are Going to Focus On

1. Stay focused like a laser on relevant, real community issues
2. We will organize the plan the way YOU think and work
- Traditional
- Useless data followed by elements
- Actions steps that may or may not get done
- czb Approach
- Values, principles, market, priorities
- Projects that have to be tackled
- Ashland approach
- How you think and work
- Your priorities
3. Devise practical and workable recommendations
4. Build champions in the community and recruit partners

Not Just About Land Use

What will go here?

Who are future customers?

How will our kids fare?

Values, Beliefs and Habits

Priorities

Priorities Discussion

Priorities

Where is Ashland on its curve of strength/decline/strength?

Priorities
- Individual Work
- Looking into the next 5 years, youve done good prioritization work. But we
need to know more of a) housing, b) economic development/marketing, c)
infrastructure, and d) city facilities
- Please rank
- Please note why
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- In terms of meeting these priorities, as youve listed and reasoned them out
- Please think about business as usual however you define that
- Will these priorities be tackled and done well by business as usual
- If so, GREAT! Tell us what to not try to change
- If not, what needs to be changed?
- Why?
- Why hasnt it been changed yet? (whats been in the way?)

Priorities
- Group Work
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- Target Marketwho should it be?

- Think about your possible target market?
- Who? Why? What do they need, want, expect?
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- Assets
- What are the citys assets it cannot afford to squander?
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Neighborhood Economics 101

Is this your vision of Ashland?

$39,000 - $130,000

Best cared for

properties in
Ashland

Standard !
Setters

Homes that are in

really good
A little work will
condition

260

10%

722

28%

Average quality
care and
maintenance

Always at some risk

depending on
location

1,065

42%

Declining; not
Will worsen without
complete distress an intervention

436

17%

Distressed;
valuable only to
toxic owners

66

3%

2,549

3%

10%

17%

28%

42%

1 The part of the

market thats
2 working well
3 The most @ risk part
of the market
4 The part of the
market that's not
working at all
5

982

39%

1,065

42%

502

20%

2,549

1 Where the
community will cost
2 effectively mobilize
to reinvest in itself

2,047

80%

502

20%

3
4 Where it can be
expense, and where
negativity can shape
5
outcomes

2,549

1 Properties whose
owners are going to
2 be shaped by what
happens to 3s 4s 5s
3 Properties that are at
disposition risk

982

39%

1,567

61%

4
5
2,549

Income x 3 = house buying power

Income / 36 = monthly rent/mortgage payment capacity
Income / 3 = discretionary spending
Discretionary spending / 300 = estimated supportable retail square footage

$39,000 - $130,000$110,000 (uh oh!)$101/mo

$4.3M deprived from housing market annually
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~$1.1 tax revenue deprived from county for public

goods and services owning to diminished confidence in housing market

Last ten years, Ashland city

housing market has about $40M
less in ad valorem
than it should have had, owing to
owners withholding maintenance
they CAN afford