TOGETHERDM
Choices for a stronger
Delaware-Muncie
Delaware County and the City of Muncie, IN
How can a county and its core city collaborate on an implementable vision for the future?
SUMMARY
A slowly declining population over five decades, combined with accelerated job loss and deindustrialization since 2000, have produced a number of challenges for Muncie, its surrounding suburbs, and rural parts of Delaware County. These include a decline in housing conditions, rising poverty, sprawl without growth, and strained public finances.
TogetherDM began in January 2021 and was a rare effort to produce a shared county-city comprehensive plan, stemming from a recognition that issues and resources transcend municipal boundaries. The process produced a Delaware-Muncie Comprehensive Plan as well as a Muncie Strategic Investment Plan to provide detailed implementation guidance within the city and a Delaware County Strategic Investment Plan to guide implementation in unincorporated areas.
Online tools for keeping the community informed and engaged in the process
The TogetherDM web presence served as a central point of information and engagement at a time when gathering in-person was challenging. Online surveys and the posting of those survey results gave community members the chance to see how the community was weighing in on issues.
As the process unfolded, eNews kept residents up to date on what was going on and how they could participate in the development of the plan.
Community Vision, Priorities, Goals and Strategies Guided by Community Voices
A month-long survey in March, input from the project’s Steering Committee, and small group conversations facilitated by committee members were instrumental in guiding the identification of issues as focal points for the community.
Defining What Real Progress Will Look Like
Getting the basics right for the community's three priorities sets a clear path for action and what it will mean for different types of places in the City of Muncie and across Delaware County.
Strategic Investment Plans for the City and County
As implementable plans that reflect widely shared values and the community’s top priorities, TogetherDM and its strategic investment plans provide leaders and organizations throughout Delaware-Muncie with tools for making consistent and well-informed decisions with their resources to achieve well-defined outcomes.
RELATED WORK
