PlanCOS, the City's Comprehensive Plan
January 2019 marked the adoption of PlanCOS, the community’s plan for the development of Colorado Springs, with the vision, “we will build a great city that matches our scenery.” This sentiment is a lot to aspire to and our City is actively focused and engaged with the many opportunities and challenges that are part of achieving this vision.
PlanCOS is organized around six vision themes reflecting the primary focuses articulated through citizen, public official, and administrative staff engagement—Vibrant Neighborhoods, Unique Places, Thriving Economy, Strong Connections, Renowned Culture, and Majestic Landscapes. The plan identifies keystone indicators and strategies for achieving key priorities which support the vision themes. Additionally, six key projects and implementation strategies are identified—all of which have seen movement.
PlanCOS received a coveted Honor award from the Colorado Chapter of the American Planning Association at the 2019 Chapter Conference held in Snowmass Village, Colorado. Chapter Awards recognize outstanding plans and people of the planning profession, and are honored on the basis of their innovation, ability to provide transferable lessons to other communities, excellent quality, promotion of community progress and the public good, and other unique factors that make them exemplary.
The Comprehensive Planning division will continue to monitor the progress of PlanCOS through an annual report highlighting key projects that support the vision of PlanCOS from the past year, evaluate objectives, and will report progress on key indicators. The keystone indicators are intended to be used primarily to measure citywide progress toward achieving the PlanCOS vision. PlanCOS uses these indicators to help clarify existing and desired conditions by measuring key elements and trends. The online dashboard tracks the progress of these indicators in real time.