What is Envision Our Chicopee: 2040?

Click here to see a printable version of the plan FAQs.

Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 is the City’s first-ever city-wide Comprehensive Plan. What does this mean? A Comprehensive Plan is a shared vision for Chicopee’s future and a roadmap that guides how we get there together. It helps us make the things we love about Chicopee even better and fix the things that need to be fixed. A good Comprehensive Plan is a tool that can be used frequently by City leaders, staff, boards, and committees to make decisions about:

  • What new development looks like and where it happens

  • How the City can protect environmentally sensitive areas and historic sites

  • Prioritizing future investments in community services and infrastructure that promote fairness and equity across the city

  • Better supporting local business development

Its most important goal is to protect and enhance the things in Chicopee that make it a great place to live, both for today’s residents and future generations.

Why should Chicopee have a Plan?

When it comes to dealing with the future, cities often fall into two categories:

1)      Some react to changes and problems as they occur, with whatever time, money, and other resources are currently available.

2)      Others plan in advance for expected changes and start working early and often to pull together the resources needed to get where they want to go.

Chicopee wants to be a city that prepares for the future, spends tax dollars efficiently and effectively, and leaves our community even better and stronger for the next generation. A Comprehensive Plan can help us do that. It shows what projects and ideas are local priorities, which makes it easier for the City to apply for grants and financing, and attract private investment, new businesses, and new residents.

What about the things we need taken care of TODAY?

We know that people care a great deal about their day-to-day needs. Is your trash being collected on time? Are potholes being filled? Are parks being maintained? The Comprehensive Plan process is not designed to directly address these day-to-day concerns. The Comprehensive Plan CAN look at long term solutions for these issues. For example, the Comprehensive Plan won’t fix a particular pothole, but it CAN suggest that the City establish a system for identifying, prioritizing, and fixing potholes all over the City in an efficient manner. That’s the sort of thing that a Comprehensive Plan can lay out for the City’s future.

That said, if the people of Chicopee identify solutions that are not included in the Comprehensive Plan, please feel welcome to contact the appropriate department. City staff are ready and willing to start implementing ideas as soon as possible.