DEMOPOLIS &045; As the community moves forward, city leaders have pushed for the creation of a comprehensive plan to steer the city toward what it wished to achieve in the future.

With the help of the University of West Alabama and planning consultant Larry Watts, the city will make its first combined efforts towards supplying the goals and specifics of the comprehensive plan in an initial community meeting on the subject at 5 p.m. on April 2. Mayor Cecil Williamson said she urges the community to attend the meeting, which will begin the process of establishing the desired look and feel of the city in 2025.

The comprehensive plan, true to its name, will produce recommendations for land use, community design, housing, streets and access and community facilities. The first meeting for the plan will kick off with a visioning open house and workshop open to individuals, businesses and other groups that want to give their input on the future of Demopolis.

In addition to setting out the goals of the Demopolis area, the plan will also set out how the plan itself will be instituted. It will set out how the city will gauge its progress towards its goals from a day-to-day and annual level.

The plan will incorporate current projects and issues on the table for the city as it looks to the future. It will strategically set the path to achieve the objectives of the area residents.

Moore said without a diverse group of individuals attending the meeting to give their opinion in the matter groups could see their goals missed in the plan. He said that is why he wants to have as many people as possible attend the function and voice their needs and concerns.