It is the start of a long planning process.
The City of Humboldt presented the findings of a Foundation Assessment Survey to the public during an informal meeting at the Uniplex on June 20.
The Community Foundation Assessment report was compiled by Crosby Hanna and Associates with Catterall and Wright Consulting Engineers.
During the meeting, residents of Humboldt and area were encouraged to give their feedback, either through conversations with city council and staff and the consultants or through written correspondence.
"We were fairly pleased with the attendance - you always wish you could have more but there are lots of things going on," said Mayor Malcolm Eaton. "We think we had pretty close to 50 people come out through the evening so we are pretty pleased with that part of the process."
The next step for the City will be to continue to pull information together and identify some of the priorities coming out of the report, explained Eaton.
They hope to have the final report wrapped up in July and set some directions at the August council meeting for the fall.
At the meeting, residents voiced a few concerns.
"I think people are generally concerned about the overall growth factor that is going on and how that potentially can affect the community," said Eaton.
He explained people are asking if the city can handle the growth and if there is a large enough capacity for housing, water and sewer systems, schools and hospital in the city.
He explained with those questions being asked, more questions are raised such as is Humboldt going to be a large enough community for a transportation system or to expand facilities like the Uniplex to add additional ice surfaces.
"Those are the kinds of questions people are asking and are concerned about," said Eaton. "They are all good questions and they are the same kind of questions that city council talks about."
Another concern citizens have is rental and affordable housing.
"Rental housing or apartments comes up through discussion as a significant need," said Eaton.
Citizens are also concerned with making sure there is enough green space in the community, along with walking trails.
"Council can see that people value green space - they certainly want us to make sure there is enough green space being planned in terms of new developments and new areas of the city," said Eaton.
There is also support for seniors' initiatives, explained Eaton.
"We have a pretty active seniors' club," said Eaton. "I think they have been more active in the last few years and receive lots of support."
Along with support for the seniors' facilities, they also saw support for the museum and the kind of history and heritage programs, services and facilities in the community.
The City wants people to understand this is an ongoing process.
"We are trying to emphasize that this is not the end of something - this is a planning process that we are into, gathering information on how people feel about things," said Eaton. "This isn't one event - it is an ongoing process."
In the future, there will be more meetings and additional opportunities for people in the community to be involved.
