On Monday, December 8, Milford City Council approved a contract with the University of Delaware Institute of Public Administration (IPA) to assist them in updating the Comprehensive Plan. State law requires each municipality to update their plan every ten years. Milford last approved an update in 2018 and must approve a new one by January 2028.
“The proposal includes assistance with developing the plan vision, goals and objectives,” City Planner Rob Pierce said. “It also includes facilitating public engagement, data collection, mapping and plan preparation.”
The process will begin with introductory workshops with the Planning Commission and City Council as well as a public open house to gather feedback from the community. IPA would work with the Planning Commission to develop several chapters of the plan before holding midpoint public open houses and workshops with council. The cost of the contract is $61,800. The funds will include $10,000 from FY26 General Fund Reserves and $51,800 funded by the FY27 and FY28 Capital Improvement Plan.
“I do want to commend you and whoever was involved in making the decision to have additional opportunities for input and awareness of the Comprehensive Plan,” Councilman Jason James said. “My hope is that as many of the citizens as possible attend as many of those opportunities as they can to learn how the process takes place, so they can know ahead of time what the plans are for regarding what goes where in the city”
Pierce stated that there would be a planned workshop in the beginning to gather feedback from the start of the process.
“We will possibly review the old document with the public, but we’ll use the midpoint to review a handful of chapters for those that are familiar with the document,” Pierce said. “I think there are 10 or 11 chapters in the plan, so we try to tackle five of those chapters before holding a midpoint review. That will give the public an opportunity to provide actual comments n those draft chapters for the commission to consider. Then we’ll do the same at the end and hopefully get enough feedback, not only up front from the community but also as we move along through the process.”
Council approved the contract with a vote of five to zero. Councilman Danny Perez as well as Councilwomen Madula Kalesis and Lori Connor were not present at the meeting.
The current Comprehensive Plan can be viewed on the City of Milford website.
