Winner of the 2020 Best Practice Planning Award from the American Planning Association Wisconsin Chapter, the Sun Prairie Comprehensive Plan 2019-2039 establishes a concise vision, set of goals, policies and action steps to guide the community successfully forward.

Sun Prairie is a well-established city of nearly 35,000 residents, located immediately northeast of Madison, Wisconsin. It has a vibrant culture and growing economy — the birthplace of artist Georgia O’Keefe and home to popular traditions such as Cornfest and unique Groundhog Day celebrations.

As one of the fastest growing communities in the state over the past two decades, this growth has yielded serious conversations within the community about how much the City should grow and what growth looks like. To address this broad question and develop a vision for the future, the City of Sun Prairie and MSA worked together to update its 2009 Sun Prairie Comprehensive Plan. The updated plan would be tethered to the city’s Vision Statement of pursuing “balanced growth, safe and healthy neighborhoods, and opportunity for all residents to pursue their dreams and live full lives.”

The City of Sun Prairie Comprehensive Plan is a working document to guide the community in achieving this vision, with tactics and resources to aid the city in making critical development decisions, assisting with capital and operational budgeting, and helping to focus and stimulate private housing, business and industrial investments over the next five, 10 and 20 years.

The comprehensive plan was developed through a robust and multi-faceted public engagement effort consisting of monthly meetings with a citizen steering committee, two series of community forums held at three separate venues, a comprehensive community survey and 17 focus group discussions with residents and organizations. The process included targeted efforts to collect input from and understand the concerns of residents that are traditionally underrepresented in planning processes, including people of color, lower-income households, and renter households. The planning effort also had more of a neighborhood focus which allowed people to comment and express concerns about the areas they live in and care most about.

The updated plan is more concise than its 2009 original, adding a more robust implementation section with over 100 actions to pursue over the next 20 years. It is organized into two volumes: Volume 1 features background information used during the planning process and available to inform future policy discussions. Volume 2 features the policy and implementation content of the plan. A 12-page Executive Summary highlights the high-priority actions and policies under each Comp Plan element.

Formally adopted in 2019, the City of Sun Prairie is now using its new comprehensive plan as a catalyst for sustainable growth and a guide toward smart development over the next 20 years and beyond.