Eagan hires consultant to bring community vision into focus

What kind of community do Eagan residents want to leave to their children and their grandchildren?

That's the kind of question residents will have the chance to answer as the city embarks on a community "visioning" process. Their answers may well shape the goals that emerge from the effort.

Eagan City Council members last month approved a contract to hire Next Generation Consulting of Madison, Wis., to conduct the project at a cost of up to $60,000. The idea of developing an identity for Eagan came up in January at the council's 2015 goals retreat.

The project is in its early stages, but the city plans to form a steering committee to lead the process, which is called "Eagan Forward" for now.

The project is expected to get underway this summer, with results presented in early 2016. Council members will have more details about the project and its schedule after they talk via Skype with Rebecca Ryan, founder and co-owner of Next Generation Consulting, at a special meeting in April.

"There are no predetermined outcomes," Eagan City Administrator Dave Osberg said. "We want to engage and energize residents to help shape a clear vision for Eagan's future, building on the success the city has already achieved."

The intent is to "create an inclusive, candid process to give Eagan an opportunity to address its challenges, engage new leaders, assess the trends impacting the region and identify a new vision for the area's current and future leaders," according to the plan the consultant submitted to the city.

"When you think about cities that work the best for all people, they tend to be the cities where people vote, where people show up for potlucks and where people are active volunteers," Ryan said. "All of that points to engagement. There's a growing body of research that shows that the more cohesive a community is, the more resilient the area."

Objectives include developing a "renewed vision" for the city and a plan to achieve it. The City Council, business leaders, immigrant and refugee leaders and young professionals are among those who will be involved in the process.

According to Next Generation Consulting, the city faces an assortment of changes in coming years, including the retirement or pending retirement of baby boomers who have helped lead the city, a new generation of leaders that is moving into the city and the continuing arrival of Latino and Somali immigrants.

"These vision processes tend to be processes where we're asking, 'What kind of community do you want to leave for your children and your grandchildren?' " Ryan said. "We typically think a generation ahead and that kind of selfless thinking is not natural to most humans or at least most American humans."

By doing that, she said, cities are more prepared for change.

Ryan and Next Generation Consulting launched a Vision 2040 plan for the Willmar Lakes Area in 2014.

Willmar city manager Charlene Stevens said the city joined with the local chamber of commerce, Kandiyohi County, the local school district and a major employer to finance the project.

"Rebecca Ryan and her team bring a tremendous energy to the process of strategic planning," Stevens said. "We're very focused as a diverse community to make sure we had our East African population, our Latino population as well as everybody from senior citizens to high school youth involved, and they worked really well with us to engage those groups."

Goals in the Willmar area's Vision 2040 plan include improving the community's economy, development of new leaders, attracting and retaining newcomers, and offering more activities.

More than 100 residents are active in various initiatives and work groups that have sprung up, Stevens said. New community efforts so far include a women's leadership networking group, a leadership development boot camp and a "movies in the park" night, Stevens said.

"People just walked out with a desire to get involved," Stevens said.