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On August 19, the Local Infrastructure Hub hosted a session to discuss how mayors, city and town planners, and grant management teams can use long-range planning to guide investment while navigating evolving federal funding priorities. We were joined by Mayor Brad Cavanagh of Dubuque, Iowa, and Mayor Monroe Nichols of Tulsa, Oklahoma, to learn how their cities have engaged the community, established cross-sector partnerships and leveraged data-driven decision-making to make strong long-range plans to guide capital improvement programs, zoning updates and project pipelines.
Key Insights Shared
Trust building must be a continuous process.
Mayor Nichols discussed the Kirkpatrick Heights/Greenwood Master Plan, which is focused on redevelopment within the historically black community in the Kirkpatrick Heights and Greenwood neighborhoods in Tulsa. He emphasized that trust building and community engagement are not just boxes to be ticked, and instead require continuous work. The process has involved more than 40 community meetings and events, connecting with 1,000 residents and 16 months of community-led planning. Mayor Nichols called each step of the plan a “trust check-in” to ensure that the community is comfortable and that the social and economic benefits of redevelopment are experienced by Black Tulsans.
Local partnerships can carry projects forward when federal support wanes.
Dubuque’s comprehensive plan, Imagine Dubuque, was adopted in 2017, and serves as a policy guide for the community’s physical, social, and economic development. Mayor Cavanagh discussed how important local partnerships were in carrying forward the plan. Resources at other levels of government ebb and flow, and sometimes work against you. He highlighted that local partnerships can carry forward a plan when there aren’t federal resources to rely on. These partnerships should be the first step in ensuring a successful plan to create community buy-in.
Keep up the momentum.
Long range plans typically have a 10-plus-year time horizon, and therefore it can be difficult to keep the energy and momentum going. Mayor Cavanagh emphasized that Dubuque has been able to keep the momentum up through the diverse stakeholders involved. The plan is not in one person or one organization’s lap, and multiple champions lead to a positive collective energy. The Kirkpatrick Heights/Greenwood Master Plan will be a long road of trying to reverse decades of injustice. Mayor Nichols stressed the importance of reminding folks why they are implementing this plan in the first place and reminding people of the opportunity that the plan presents.
Resources Shared During the Webinar and in Discussion:
- Planning Ahead: Long Range Planning for Success – Long-range planning is a key tool that mayors, city planners, and federal grant coordination teams can use to guide investment while navigating evolving federal funding priorities.
Free Technical Assistance Opportunities
Municipalities can access expert support to apply for and implement grants, including through no-cost Bootcamps and Workshops. Bootcamps are multi-week, cohort based programs that guide cities through the full application development process. Workshops are intensive, half-day sessions focused on targeted, grant-specific training. Register today to participate in the following trainings:
- Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving Fund Workshop
- Rail Elimination Crossings and Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements Workshop
- Brownfields Workshop
- Direct Pay Workshop
- Safe Streets and Roads for All Workshop
- Grant Implementation Bootcamp