Hampton is in the process of developing a new Community Plan, which will include both a 5-year and a 20-year outlook.
The currently adopted Community Plan is an update of the 1998 Strategic Plan and the 2010 Comprehensive Plan adopted by City Council in 1989 to provide a foundation for other city policy, planning and budgeting initiatives. Historically, Hampton has updated its strategic plan every five years and its comprehensive plan every ten years.
This single and integrated planning process provides a stronger link between the short-term program recommendations of the Strategic Plan and the long-term, physical recommendations of the Comprehensive Plan. A concurrent update of the two plans allows for a single, more streamlined and effective community participation process.
In 2011 the City of Hampton undertook a community-wide two-phase process to update the Community Plan. The first phase concluded with the endorsement of critical issues, outcomes (goals and objectives), and measures of success. The second phase concluded with the adoption of strategies and plans for achieving the critical outcomes. Ten focus areas were created, and focus groups made up of citizen volunteers, subject matter experts and staff were formed for each area. Areas included: economic base, education, pride, waterways, housing, government, youth, families, safety and environment.