St. Charles laying out goals for St. Charles circa 2014

St. Charles officials are prepared to spend $30,000 on a new strategic plan, which will outline goals for the city to achieve by 2014.

Aldermen on the council's government operations committee have tentatively agreed to the expense and it goes before the full city council Monday.

If approved, this will be the city's first strategic planning effort in a decade. It is expected to take about a year.

"We're a community that is really starting to evolve from a growth-oriented community to a retention and development mode," Mayor Don DeWitte said Wednesday.

"We're trying to get a feel for what people see looking a little further down the road, rather than just the year or two we normally look at in our regular planning and budget process."

The $30,000 price tag covers the cost of hiring Elmhurst-based Lynn Montei Associates to facilitate the process by involving local residents, officials, business people, nonprofit groups, city staff and other government bodies.

The firm has done similar work for Batavia, Geneva, Naperville and other suburban communities.

Among the results expected are strategic goals to be achieved by 2014, "improved consensus philosophy among elected officials" and "decreased cynicism in the community," according to a work proposal.