City of Capitola Strategic Plan Project

The City is embarking on a Strategic Plan Project, to guide the City's operations over the next five years. Once completed, the Plan will align the City's budget and resources to strategic priorities and objectives.

What is a Strategic Plan?

Strategic planning is an organizational management activity to set priorities, focus energy and resources, strengthen operations, ensure that employees and other stakeholders are working toward common goals, establish agreement around intended outcomes/results, and assess and adjust the organization’s direction in response to a changing environment.

It is a disciplined effort that produces fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what an organization is, who it serves, what it does, and why it does it, with a focus on the future. Effective strategic planning articulates not only where an organization is going and the actions needed to make progress, but also how it will know if it is successful.

Why does Capitola Need a Strategic Plan? 

A strategic plan is the tool that keeps the City headed in the same direction and serves as a blueprint for the long-term sustainability of the Capitola, its programming and services, its operations, its infrastructure and government in general. A strategic plan prioritizes mission-critical activities and how to align the City's budget with these priorities to increase efficiency and effectiveness. 

How Has the Public Been Involved?

In late September, the City publicly introduced the Strategic Plan initiative during the Capitola Wharf Grand Opening event with a booth for people to offer input and ideas. Shortly after, an in-person community forum was held on October 1. An online portal was open and available to city and regional residents, which included a survey and other targeted questions to gain insight into priorities and desires for Capitola's future. 

More than 40 individual and group interviews were conducted, three employee forums were held, 2,300 people visited our specialized online engagement portal, and upwards of 30,000 people were reached on social media channels, prompting more than 1,300 clicks to the city’s website. These outreach efforts were designed to provide opportunities for every member of the Capitola community to make their voice heard.

For more information and to see the results of our online engagement portal, click here. 

What's Next? 

BerryDunn synthesized the perspectives and ideas gathered from residents, employees, the greater community, and past guiding documents, to present a “state of the City” to the current City Council, along with the two candidates who will take office in December. Attendees collaborated on Capitola’s Mission, Vision, Values, and five-year goals, which City staff then reviewed and built upon during a workshop the following day. Now, our consultants will use the information from these two workshops to create a working draft strategic plan document, to be presented to Council during a public meeting in early 2025. 

This winter, residents will have the opportunity to review a working draft of the Strategic Plan during an official public review period. This draft will reflect the feedback collected from previous engagement efforts, as well as input from city staff and elected officials.