City of Manhattan, KS
Strategic Plan

For decades, the City of Manhattan, Kansas, enjoyed a stable economic situation. The City is home to the largest employer, Kansas State University, and adjacent the Fort Riley base, which includes almost 70,000 military affiliates in the City and surrounding region. However, over the last several years the City has experienced fluctuations in population at Fort Riley, a decline in university enrollment, and impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic resulting in stagnant growth and a more dynamic economic situation. Planning NEXT was retained to undertake an ambitious effort to develop a City-wide strategic plan to guide decision making and investment throughout the community.

Recognizing a unique moment for the City.

The strategic planning process, branded as CrossroadsMHK was the first strategic plan focused solely on responsibilities and initiatives of the City government. This plan will help prioritize City services, programs, projects and future investments. To gain further insight on the internal organization, staff participated in an activity that asked the group to identify core functions that must remain within the City, performance practices, and services and programs that could be surrendered. This information was used in parallel with the public input to develop the priorities for the plan framework.

Targeting community members.

City Commission emphasized the importance of community involvement in order to align both community and City perspectives. To reach as many voices as possible, several engagement opportunities were held throughout the process including City staff interviews, external stakeholder interviews (college students, social services, and the school district) and three rounds of public engagement opportunities. The opportunities included virtual meetings, surveys to the general public and specific demographics, and pop-up engagement events across the community. The process engaged over 1,900 participants and generated over 25,000 unique pieces of input.

Creating a collaborative process.

Throughout the process, Planning NEXT worked with two sub-committees – a staff technical committee to represent the City organization and community committee to represent the general public – to bridge the two perspectives together. Both committee worked together to ensure that the plan not only reflected community insight, but also ensure actions were framed in a manner that could be executed by the City. The final plan included 47 action items, prepared in a graphically rich and easily followed format. Additionally, an implementation matrix that helps Staff prioritize and keep track of actions over the next five years was prepared for their use.

Related News

Final Plan Document

Crossroads MHK Strategic Plan

Tags

Project Type: strategic plan
Community Type: city
Client: City of Manhattan
Services: strategic planning, community engagement