Community Workshop Identifies Core Concepts To Guide Planning Projects

The Community Visioning Workshop conducted yesterday evening quickly identified a number of core concepts that area residents see as being essential to improving the quality of life, and providing the necessary spark for reigniting growth in Fernley.
The picture above shows the graphic representation of the various concepts and ideas that were the end result of four small group "brainstorming" sessions where about a dozen area residents and a handful of city staff contributed answers to questions such as "What does living in Fernley mean to you?" and "What does quality of life look like?"
The centralized themes that emerged from the various breakout sessions included open spaces/recreational items like bike paths and walking trails, diversity of employment and more opportunities to work in Fernley, developing an identity for the city, health care/24-hour urgent care, and an event center/convention center perhaps in conjunction with development of a town center project.
Essentially it boiled down to Fernley, as a community, needs to provide involvement and engagement for all ages, which will give residents the ability to stay in the city from cradle to grave.
The key areas identified as a must for the city to provide as avenues of growth include: economic, recreational, educational, and the arts.
The city's branding or slogan was also a topic of discussion following the breakout sessions. Participants said the slogan should capture the essence of the community and, perhaps, needs to be something more than "Friendly Fernley" which has been in use since the 70's. A couple of suggestions included "Your success is our business," and "Gateway to the golden west." Erica Olsen of M3 Planning, the city's strategic planning consulting firm, suggested that developing a new slogan for the city is worthy of conducting another workshop specifically to tackle the project.
Mayor Todd Cutler, who participated in the meeting, said Fernley is a key area for future growth of the entire region.
"The dialogue that's occurring tonight is part of the process of getting the ideas that will make a difference in how the city moves forward," Cutler said.
Long-time resident Bill Clegg, who sits on a number of boards and commissions, said the state demographer has issued the latest report that shows Fernley grew at only one percent in the past year--a sharp decline from just a few years ago.
"If this was 2003 or 2004 when we were growing at 18 percent, we certainly looked at things differently," Clegg said.
Pointing out the cyclical nature of economic trends and growth rates, Cutler said that five years down the road the growth rate will be different yet again.
There was some indication that another visioning workshop would be scheduled for January, but no firm date was established.