Town of Alpine Mayor Eric Green and Nora Bland, Director of Planning for Cushing Terrell, spoke with SVI Media’s Dan Dockstader about the process of updated Alpine’s Master Plan.

(0:00) SVI Media now with Alpine Mayor Eric Green and Nora Bland. (0:03) She’s the director of planning for Cushing Terrell, (0:05) helping the community come together on a master plan. (0:09) Mayor, let’s start with you.
(0:11) Your thoughts, where we are at this point in the process. (0:15) Thanks, Dan. (0:17) We’ve had the representatives from Cushing Terrell (0:21) have been in town this week, and we’ve (0:24) had meetings with locals, agencies, citizens, (0:31) and it’s a very important part of this master plan.
(0:35) And so all those meetings have been going well, (0:38) but this is the opportunity to bring all the stakeholders (0:42) together and make sure their voices are heard. (0:46) And Nora can talk more about some of the specific things (0:50) that happened at the meetings, but this (0:52) is part of the process. (0:54) It’s a very important part of the process, (0:56) and I would say we’re about halfway (0:58) through the master plan.
(1:01) But all of the information we’re gathering right now (1:05) feeds into the master plan and the conclusions (1:09) that Cushing Terrell will have. (1:10) Very good. (1:11) With that, Nora, it sounded like a handoff to you (1:13) from the mayor of planning.
(1:15) You’ve been working through that process (1:16) and having different points brought to you (1:20) as far as the community and importance. (1:22) Where are we from your assignment? (1:24) Sure. (1:25) I’m going to back up a little bit.
(1:26) I’m going to start from the beginning (1:28) and say that our task as the consultants (1:33) here is to gather information. (1:36) So there’s two main data points that we’re pulling from. (1:41) One is from existing conditions data, (1:44) so we’re gathering information about where the town is, (1:47) where it’s come from, and then what (1:51) we hear from the community, so community input.
(1:53) So we did a survey. (1:55) We had 218 responses to the survey, which was incredible. (1:58) That’s impressive.
(1:59) You have an involved community. (2:01) A really good representation of the community. (2:04) And so we were asking some pretty broad level questions (2:07) because it’s the beginning of the process when (2:10) we held that survey.
(2:11) And then now what we’re doing is digging in deeper. (2:14) So what we heard from the first round of community engagement (2:18) is directly informing the questions we’re asking now. (2:21) So the event that we held today was a big stakeholder (2:26) workshop.
(2:27) So we invited folks like the land managers (2:31) from the Bureau of Reclamation and other entities. (2:37) You’re reaching all the way out to the federal level. (2:39) Well, they’re an important player, right? (2:42) Surrounded by federal agents.
(2:44) Exactly. (2:44) So it’s super important that we hear (2:46) from what their concerns are in terms of their duties (2:50) and managing the lands and the tourism that’s (2:53) so important to the town and the town’s (2:56) fiscal sustainability and the vitality of the town (2:59) moving forward. (3:00) But we’re also hearing from housing advocates and folks (3:05) that are really involved in transportation planning (3:08) and thinking about active mobility and connectivity (3:11) and things like that.
(3:12) So our workshop today was kind of little focus group (3:16) conversations around topics that really came out (3:20) of that first round of community engagement (3:23) as important to the community. (3:25) Speaking Tuesday the 19th for that meeting. (3:28) And so where do you go from here? (3:30) And what do you do? (3:30) Sound like you’ve hit the ground running.
(3:32) Where do you go from here? (3:34) Well, a really important piece of this project (3:36) is the project website. (3:38) It’s alpine-master-plan.com. (3:42) And there will always be an opportunity (3:46) for residents and stakeholders to be (3:48) engaged on that website. (3:50) So throughout the whole process of this planning effort, (3:54) people can go and tune in there.
(3:57) But moving forward, we’re looking forward (3:59) to holding our first kind of big community open house (4:03) in the fall. (4:05) We’re shooting for October at some point (4:08) where we will have some elements, (4:11) some draft elements of the plan for the community to react to. (4:15) Mayor, do you want to put a book into this as we wrap it up? (4:18) We know this will be just one of many interviews (4:21) we’re going to be doing on a very important project.
(4:23) Absolutely. (4:25) I think the process going forward is really laid out well. (4:30) And again, like Nora said, there’s (4:33) so many opportunities for community members (4:35) to have their voices heard, whether it’s (4:38) from our website or future engagement opportunities.
(4:42) So we’re very excited about where we stand in the process (4:44) and where it’s leading us. (4:46) And this is going to really have a say (4:50) in what the town of Alpine looks for the next 10, 15, 20 years (4:54) and hopefully put us on a course that leads us to success (4:59) and what everyone foresees the town of Alpine (5:02) can be in the future. (5:04) The Alpine Master Plan.
(5:05) That’s Mayor Eric Green, also visiting (5:07) with Nora Bland, Director of Planning for Cushing-Tarrell. (5:10) Dan Dox at RSVI Media.