Good time for new city master plan

As with the county’s new land use plan, it’s a good time for the city leaders to take the time to determine, with the community’s help, just what we want Powell to be going forward. 

The city is beginning the process to refresh its old master plan, originally put together in the late 90's, and I think it’s perfect timing. 

Having gone through the county’s land use process, I appreciate a governing body looking at the big picture every once in a while, and especially in the wake of the changes that have occurred since Covid. This master plan process is similar to the land use plan, but different.  A master plan takes in much more than just land uses, including economic development, community, character and housing, as City Administrator Zack Thorington noted at a recent city council meeting.

A lot has changed since Covid, and it might lead to a slightly different outlook on how to plan for the future. Housing prices, for one, have spiked since then, and while they haven’t stayed at those record levels, they’re still far above what it cost to buy the average Powell home, say in 2017, when my family first moved to Cody and looked at Powell as a possible cheaper alternative. 

Therefore, how important is it for the city to address the lack of affordable housing (and by that I don’t just mean true low income housing, but housing a typical young family can afford and fit into, such as a three bedroom, two bath home)?

It would be interesting to see, as in most cases incomes have not kept up with the rise in home prices. How many people in the market for a home have had to leave or look further afield, as my family once did when we couldn’t make Cody housing prices work. 

And do we need to re-evaluate downtown? I wasn’t here in the 90's, but from what I’ve heard from people who were, it’s changed quite a bit (I remember talking to the owners of Marquis Awards, after announcing their closing, talking about all the changes). Working on Bent Street, I’m certainly interested in seeing it remain the heartbeat of Powell, but what does that mean now, and what can the city and similar entities do about it? How much do we want the local government to step in? 

Like with the county land use plan, we’re also at a point where newer residents are coming in, some with different opinions as to what should be regulated in town (see pet ordinances). It’s good that the city is re-evaluating those ordinances already, but does that too need to be part of this larger examination of where we want to see Powell in the future?

There are a lot of questions, so I’m excited to see this process get going, and I hope the community is allowed to have a say as to what Powell’s new master plan looks like.