Residents give input for city’s new Comprehensive Plan

The creation of a new Comprehensive Plan for the future of Fairfield is underway.

Monday afternoon, Confluence representatives Christopher Shires and Jane Reasoner gave a presentation to Fairfield City Council members at city hall.

Shires is a principal and Reasoner is a planner 1 out of Confluence's Des Moines office.

During the meeting, Shires and Reasoner helped the city leaders set goals and learned their views for the city's future. Then, later in the evening, they held a public workshop in the Fairfield Arts & Convention Center's Expo Hall to explain the process and gain insight and vision for the future from community residents. More than 40 people attended.

Shires explained a Comprehensive Plan is a master plan, a guiding document for the city for making decisions about what it wants to be as it grows in the future. The plan will address land use, housing, commercial and industrial development, sustainability and the environment, transportation and infrastructure, parks and recreation and community facilities and services.

'Sustainability is a running theme through this whole process,” Shires said.

Reasoner presented information about Fairfield that also will help in forming a new plan. She said the median age of a Fairfield resident is 37.1; the average household is made up of 2.23 people; and the median household income is $45,257.

Reasoner said 43 percent of Fairfield residents are home renters, and 57 percent are homeowners. Of the renters, 55 percent pay $500-$999 in rent and 32 percent pay less than $500.

The average home values in Fairfield, she continued, range from $50,000 to $150,000, which is lower than the average home values in Iowa.

As for the household income, Reasoner said Fairfield is very consistent with the nation. She pointed out that employment in Jefferson County has steadily increased since 2010. The top industries include manufacturing, educational services, retail trade, health care and social services, accommodations and professional.

Reasoner said there are about 900 jobs in manufacturing, but less than 500 of the workers holding those jobs live in Fairfield.

'That tells a story about where people choose to live,” she said, adding that in 2015, 1,839 people lived and worked in Fairfield compared to 3,067 who lived outside of Fairfield, but worked in town, and 1,755 who lived in Fairfield, but worked outside of town.

The median income for Fairfield residents is $1,251 to $3,333 per month, she added.

And to spend that income, Reasoner said Fairfield residents go out of town to purchase vehicles, electronics, furniture and clothing. 'The demand is more than the supply,” she pointed out, but, she added, people come to Fairfield to buy food, building material, general merchandise and shop at health and personal care stores and imbibe at food and beverage shops.

Reasoner said that like Fairfield jobs, Fairfield population also is growing. The current population is about 10,500. By 2040, the population could be over 11,000. 'Fairfield has bucked a lot of trends seen in rural Iowa,” she said. 'It's growing. What is needed to support this population?”

As far as 'bucking the trend,” Shires said not only is Fairfield's population growing, but that population, while growing older, also is growing younger. 'Fairfield is a shining star in that,” he said. 'The population growth is a real positive, and Fairfield has good jobs and job recovery after the recession.”

The presenters used a series of engagement exercises to learn what the audience felt were the biggest opportunities and challenges for Fairfield.

Some of the answers were about opportunities to create more child care facilities, replace infrastructure, grow the housing market, and attract young people to an affordable, fun place to live.

Some of the answers about the biggest challenges included: a high level of poverty for children, rundown neighborhoods and homes, mental health care, and no citywide building codes.

The audience also was asked to complete a postcard: 'Dear Friend/Family, It is the year 2030 and you should visit me here in Fairfield because …”

Some of those invitations included: Fairfield has been the first city to go totally off the grid; has exquisitely beautiful net zero energy homes; is a destination because of the art murals in the alleyways.

The presenters also had small group exercises to help define Fairfield, show envisioning for the city; and map where they thought new industry, housing, parks, commercial, offices and agriculture should be located.

'It's not about getting it right, it's about giving us your ideas,” said Shires.

Shires said creating Fairfield's Comprehensive Plan is a four-phase project that will take a little over a year to complete. The project is in the second phase: vision input. The first phase was research and analysis. The third phase is to draft the plan. The fourth phase is to review the plan. Shires said it will be presented for consideration to the Fairfield City Council in May or June of next year.

The next step for Phase 2 is a Box City youth workshop. Shires explained they let youth use cardboard to create a city they would like to live in. 'And, as a bonus, it's a way to identify your future city planners and builders,” he added.