Win2030 Advisory Committee Reviews Community Feedback

On Wednesday, July 15, the advisory committee meeting for the Win2030 Actionable Visioning process met for the first time. The meeting was held remotely via Zoom.

There were about 20 people in attendance, including committee members, employees of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), Council President Phil Boncore, School Supt. Lisa Howard and several residents.

The purpose of the meeting was to highlight the goals of the visioning process, define the committee’s role, review all community input so far and discuss next steps.

Purpose of Visioning Process

The visioning process is meant to provide community feedback, highlight connections, measure and summarize goals, recommend actionable steps, inform a master planning process, and publish a report of all findings.

Advisory Committee Role and Outreach

The advisory committee is tasked with promoting awareness of Win2030 Visioning, providing ongoing council to MAPC and the town, and representing visioning ideas to decision makers. Outreach will be based on the town’s budget and will include email, website, press, social media and WCAT.

Summary of Community Input

On May 30, MAPC, the Town of Winthrop and the Win2030 steering committee presented a live, interactive Zoom meeting. Around fifty people participated in that meeting. Subsequently, residents were invited to respond to an online survey between May 30 and July 13. The survey was advertised on Facebook and 378 people responded (only three said they did not live or work in town). Both the live event and the online survey asked respondents to rank their goals in eight key areas. The following chart shows the top goal in each category.

Discussion of Next Steps

A second public event will be held in late August or early September to gather more input. The meeting will be similar to the first and will include a panel discussion, a facilitated question and answer session, and internal polling.

Following that meeting, residents will be given the opportunity to participate in another online survey for a period of two to three weeks. Some members of the advisory committee suggested changes to the questions, such as making them less prescriptive and more open-ended, providing less background information, and checking for factual accuracy.

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