James City County, Virginia

Clarion Associates assisted James City County with the development of the County’s first strategic plan. Organizing and prioritizing more than 30 plans and studies including the comprehensive plan, the 2035 JCC Strategic Plan provides a structure for funding and implementing the myriad projects and programs supported by the community. It sets out priorities in 5, 10, 15, and 20-year increments and establishes the collective revenue needs to fund all the initiatives. Clarion worked with the County to identify a process for integrating the Strategic Plan into annual budgeting and capital improvement planning processes. All departmental work plans are now guided by the goals of the Strategic Plan. Clarion then partnered with James City County to update their comprehensive plan through the Engage 2045 process.

Clarion led the development of the project branding and the public engagement process that includes four critical milestones for developing the plan’s policy direction: Listening and Envisioning, Exploring and Testing, Deciding and Affirming, and Planning and Implementing. This process was designed as a cumulative public engagement process that tests and reaffirms the public input findings from the previous round of engagement. The planning effort was directed by the five public input priorities identified through the first round of engagement and used these priorities to develop the plan’s goals, strategies, and actions framework. Clarion also assisted in developing the executive summary of the Plan and the plan’s implementation approach that directly links to the County’s new Strategic Plan. The comprehensive plan was adopted in October 2021.