Review highlights need for strategic plan

An independent review of the Village’s governance found that Forsyth lacks a strategic plan trustees can use with consistency in dealing with issues that affect the overall good of the community.

The lack of such a plan was the first thing a four-member team from the Illinois Municipal Assistance Program (IMAP) noted during a two-day site visit in April. Twenty-eight persons from a cross-section of Village elected and appointed officials, employees, residents and business owners were interviewed during the study.

“An unclear vision for the future of the Village” was among the issues and themes identified. The IMAP study cost $2,500.

IMAP’s Brad Townsend reviewed highlights of his team’s findings during an Aug. 3 Board meeting, telling trustees that a strategic plan would give them the opportunity to “...face up to what you [the Board] want Forsyth to be and the ideas on what you are willing to do to achieve that.”

Development of a strategic plan could take three to six months and should be done prior to updating the zoning ordinance, he said. Mayor Hap Gilbert noted that the Plan Commission has recommended a complete rewrite of the Village’s zoning ordinance following the recent completion of a professional review by the TESKA Group, a consulting company with technical expertise to review ordinances. He further noted that the Village’s comprehensive plan is eight or nine years old and needs an update.

“Putting the zoning code before the comprehensive plan is like the cart before the horse,” Townsend commented in answer to Gilbert’s question of priorities. He said it would be possible but tricky to develop a strategic plan and a comprehensive plan simultaneously, but both documents could be done in a year’s time. Trustees tabled the zoning ordinance rewrite to revisit it at a later time.

“Tabling the zoning ordinance was the appropriate thing to do until the Board decides on what priorities it wants to address first,” said Village Administrator Austin Edmondson.