Sarah Dixon, lead planner for Norwood’s Comprehensive Plan 2035, briefed the Board of Selectmen on Dec. 9 about project phases, current engagement and next steps. Dixon said the effort began about a year and a half ago and that Phase 3 work—where strategy ideas are refined and prioritized—was nearing completion.

Dixon described a multi‑track public engagement approach that included technical working sessions, stakeholder interviews, roadshows to boards and committees, surveys and open houses. "We began this work about a year and a half ago," Dixon said, and reported about 2,000 participation points to date against a planning goal of roughly 3,134 points (the committee set that goal as 10% of population expressed as participation events).

The plan organizes strategy ideas under six core themes: welcoming neighborhoods and housing choices; a connected town with safe and reliable transportation; a thriving economy and vibrant business centers; a town that celebrates culture, history and identity; being green, resilient and healthy; and engagement, infrastructure and services. Dixon emphasized that many strategy ideas have been crowd‑sourced from public input and that the committee is using a simple 1–3 rating exercise (1 = remove, 2 = needs change, 3 = adopt) to prioritize actions.

Dixon invited individual follow‑up meetings between selectmen and the plan consultant (Jen Goldson) to dive into the full strategy spreadsheet, and announced two near‑term public opportunities: the comprehensive plan steering committee meeting Dec. 22 at 7 p.m. at the senior center and a community open house Jan. 12 (7–9 p.m.) at the Memorial Library Simone Room. "We have our regular meeting of the comprehensive plan steering committee on December 22 at 7PM at the senior center," Dixon said, and highlighted the Jan. 12 open house as the main community engagement event to review strategies.

Selectmen asked whether community priorities sometimes conflict with best planning practices and whether the plan will include capacity and fiscal checks. Dixon responded that the plan will flag feasibility studies and implementation steps and that financial capacity should inform prioritization, but that a 10‑year plan cannot guarantee future funding—it provides a road map and priorities for future action.

Next steps: staff will continue roadshows and online goal prioritization through mid‑January, finalize strategy selections in January, then advance a draft to the planning board and implementation phase work thereafter.