The Cheyenne City Council on Monday night approved a resolution joining the city to a community-wide visioning and planning initiative.

Laramie County Community College President Dr. Joe Schaffer told the council that a handful of things, including the economic downturn, triggered conversations among community organization leaders about the need to come together and engage in evidence-based planning to identify and develop goals for the community.

"What are the top three to five goals for this community over the next five to ten years, what evidence do we have to suggest those are the right goals and who's responsible for doing what to obtain those goals," Schaffer asked. "I would argue we don't have the answers to those and that's really at the gist of what the planning effort is about."

But Councilman Rocky Case questioned the need for more planning.

"I've been a resident of Cheyenne my whole life, 43 years, and we've been planning that whole freaking time," said Case. "I really think that it's time that rather than planning we start doing something."

"Every single organization that we've spoken to has expressed almost an identical concern," said Schaffer. "We've been through this before, we've planned before, nobody does anything with it."

"The nobody is us and the fact that we all sit and say, 'Nobody does anything with this,' well that responsibility falls on us," Schaffer added. "So I can't tell you that this is going to lead to a different result and that the organizations will actually do something with the results of it, but what I can tell you is every important organization that has the opportunity and I'd say the responsibility to do something is at the table so hopefully we can turn the tide this time."

Schaffer says they're hoping to start the initiative next month.

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