Across the country, cities big and small use comprehensive plans in many ways, but mainly they are used to guide important decision making about future development. They are a community’s vision for its future and encompass recommendations on developing and redeveloping everything from shopping areas and community centers to trails, parks and housing choices.

Starting in August 2016, Colorado Springs embarked on updating its comprehensive plan for the first time since 2001 by seeking wide community input through a transparent and involved process. This new plan, a mayoral initiative made possible through steadfast collaboration with City Council and the general public, was branded PlanCOS.

Through this process, a first draft of our comprehensive plan has been created, and we’re confident PlanCOS includes the vision, voice, and dreams for the Colorado Springs of tomorrow. Predominantly web-based, the plan is translatable into 104 languages and accessible on your phone, tablet or any other online platform via coloradosprings.gov/plancos.

Staying true to the intent of PlanCOS, this draft is now available online through August 6 for the public to provide feedback. We want to know if we heard you correctly.

As we have communicated from the beginning, if you want to impact our city’s growth, this is a prime opportunity to speak up, and we hope you accept our invitation to do so.

To share some community engagement numbers to date, in our first survey for PlanCOS, we received more than 1,500 unique responses from residents across our community, and in the second survey, we tallied more than 4,300 unique responses. Our Facebook Live streaming of COSTALKS and EnvisionCOS have reached thousands, and we have held more than 220 meetings and events with various stakeholders, commissions and boards.

You can provide input on the PlanCOS draft by clicking on the comment buttons placed throughout the webpage. The tool is easy to use and allows the community to provide targeted feedback on specific sections of interest.

To supplement the online engagement tool, city council will host seven open houses in July. We purposefully designed the open houses to take place in each of the six council districts, with the three at-large council members combining for an additional meeting. With the open house format, you can drop by for five minutes or spend the entire two hours learning, engaging and commenting on PlanCOS.

The open houses, which will be held from 6-8 p.m., are scheduled as follows (any changes will be available on coloradosprings.gov/plancos):

• July 11: National Cyber Security Center, 3650 N. Nevada Ave. (District 1: Don Knight)

• July 12: City Auditorium, 221 E. Kiowa St. (At-Large: Merv Bennett, Bill Murray and Tom Strand)

• July 17: Colorado Springs Police Department Falcon Division, 7850 Goddard St. (District 2: David Geislinger)

• July 18: Westside Community Center, 1628 W. Bijou St. (District 3: Richard Skorman)

• July 19: Deerfield Hills Community Center, 4290 Deerfield Hills Rd. (District 4: Yolanda Avila)

• July 25: Patty Jewett, 900 E. Espanola St. (District 5: Jill Gaebler)

• July 30: Colorado Springs Police Department Stetson Hills Division, 4110 Tutt Blvd. (District 6: Andy Pico)

As you make your way through the plan’s eight chapters, you will notice it is uniquely tailored to Colorado Springs by six powerful vision themes that celebrate who we are. Those themes are: vibrant neighborhoods, unique places, thriving economy, strong connections, renowned culture and majestic landscapes. Very few comprehensive plans are structured this way.

Importantly, as you sift through the chapters, keep in mind that this is not meant to be prescriptive, and it certainly does not have all the answers. Instead, it is a guiding and visionary reference to help lead Colorado Springs into a positive, healthy and viable future for generations to come.

Following the public comment period, all of the feedback will be considered, and a final plan will be presented to city council for adoption. We are optimistic that the final plan will be accepted and approved in December 2018.

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to PlanCOS so far, and thank you to everyone who will review and offer reactions to the draft. Again, this is your time, and we welcome and appreciate your feedback.

John Suthers is mayor of Colorado Springs, and Merv Bennett is a member of the Colorado Springs City Council.