CHICOPEE – Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 is the city’s first comprehensive plan currently being put together by the Chicopee Planning Department and their Steering Committee. Over the last month, the Planning Department sent half of the residential addresses in Chicopee a survey to complete. During the week of Dec. 7, the department sent out surveys to the remaining 50 percent of residents. These surveys will be used to gather community-wide feedback on various topics covered in the plan.

According to Envision Our Chicopee’s website, a comprehensive plan is “a shared vision for Chicopee’s future and a roadmap that guides how we get there together. It helps us make the things we love about Chicopee even better and fix the things that need to be fixed. A good comprehensive plan is a tool that can be used frequently by City leaders, staff, boards and committees to make decisions.”

Per Massachusetts law, all communities have to have a comprehensive plan. Chicopee was one of only two cities in the state that did not have a plan before this process began.

"We have this really unique opportunity to make a dynamic plan that’s not held back by any previous plans or different agendas,” said Assistant Planner in the Planning Department, Patrick McKenna.

According to Associate Planner in the Planning Department, Nathan Moreau, developing this plan is about a two year process from start to finish. Right now the plan is at about its halfway point.

The city of Chicopee has had previous citywide plans, but none of them have ever been adopted to be official guiding plans like this, according to McKenna. This comprehensive plan will look at a 20–year foresight for Chicopee.

“With that said, twenty years is a long time. In a long time thing’s change rapidly and what these plans usually do is that every five to 10 years they get renewed a bit. The plan is looked at, reassessed, what priorities are we still looking towards, where have we made changes and updates from there,”  said McKenna.

Traditionally, comprehensive plans include discussions on community services, housing, transportation, future growth, natural resources, economic development and more. From looking through a 2020 lens, there will also be other important community themes that will be looked at.

“While we covered the basics of what’s included in a normal comprehensive plan, we wanted to make sure that we kind of honed into some Chicopee specific issues that we see brought up a lot more. Just from our beginning research, like where people bring up homelessness, climate change, food access, food deserts, people who have to travel certain distances to find fresh food, that’s the kind of stuff we’re looking at,” said Moreau.

As these issues are discussed within the plan, both the Planning Committee and the Steering Committee work together to try and identify people or organizations that would be best accountable to solve them. This will be addressed more as they get into the second half of putting the plan together, according to McKenna.

The Steering Committee for Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 consists of both stakeholders and high-power Chicopee individuals, but also people whose voices may not have been listened to or heard as much. The committee has a number of high school students, said McKenna. The Steering Committee works alongside the Planning Department and the Consultant Partner,  Horsley Witten Group.

The surveys that were sent out are helping the Planning Department get a great anonymous perspective. Each survey comes with a letter explaining what the comprehensive plan is, plus a return envelope with a prepaid stamp for easy returns. All residents have to do is place the survey back in the envelope and then in their mailbox once completed.

“Anything that gets people thinking about stuff that they want and stuff that they’re missing gets them really engaged so we’ve actually been getting a lot of really good results,” said Moreau.

The Planning Department is also hoping to get more feedback from residents through future events. In the spring, the department will be hosting a virtual workshop for community members to have small group discussions. They hosted a virtual event previously in September, which had a little over 100 people in attendance.

“It’s a double edged sword to some degree. With the online events you really open that ability for folks to be able to attend from anywhere, but also you’re only getting folks who are computer literate. Whereas in person events that’s not really an issue,” said McKenna.

For now, the department is looking to get 1,000 surveys back from residents. So far they have received a little over 500. According to both McKenna and Moreau, having a comprehensive plan is important for city residents and for Chicopee’s growth overall.

“If you have an approved comprehensive plan within your city, you’re qualified for more grant programs and different funding sources. It also opens up avenues for the city to apply for more grants too so it’s extremely helpful for us,” said Moreau.    

Those interested in learning more about Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 or finding out how to get involved are encouraged to visit their website at https://envisionourchicopee2040.com/.