Albert Lea Area Listens
Status Report
Albert Lea Area Listens has released the preliminary results of the four focus groups organized around priorities set by over 600 area residents who participated in listening sessions early this year. A final report will be presented at a public forum early this fall.
The focus group summary expresses the common vision of overlapping themes and goals refined by the Albert Lea Area Listens focus groups.
The summary and focus group reports have been submitted to the Virchow Krause group who was selected to guide the Albert Lea Area Listens Steering Committee through the listening process and the development of a community business plan. The plan includes mobilizing the community to carry out their vision.
Albert Lea area groups and individuals will have the opportunity to volunteer or assume responsibility for projects identified.
The four focus groups are:
- Community Appearance and Attitude
- Culture and Recreation
- Farmland Site
- Business and Economic Development
There is a clear single focus that comes out of the focus groups and the Albert Lea Area Listens process. It is ?Albert Lea is a destination community and the umbrella vision is the development of action plans that enhance this destination vision.? The Albert Lea Listens product can be considered as the ?community?s business plan? in the same way that a business or industry has a business plan. It may be easier to identify with the concept of a business plan than a strategic plan. We are to be a destination for new business and industry, tourism, the arts and artists, people seeking a residential place of choice, and a regional marketplace. One theme suggested is ?Albert Lea ? The Place to Be? and this theme would apply to all of the above.
?Community Appearance and Attitude? concentrates on physical and societal improvements that are welcoming and present a positive and refreshing impression. This is primarily a citizen engagement process with assistance from governmental and business entities that can affect appearance, develop ordinances, improve signage and clarity of direction to primary facilities.
?Culture and Recreation? concentrates on increasing awareness of opportunities and improving cultural facilities. There are action steps to create greater awareness and utilization of existing facilities and greater communication within and beyond the community regarding opportunities. Greater collaboration among the arts is promoted.
?Business and Economic Development? becomes the task of the entire community and is not to be left just to the paid professionals. Defining the community?s ability and capacity and aggressive marketing of these assets is consistent with improving appearance and
enhancing the arts and culture, all as part of making our product, the community, new and improved with a more marketable image. This includes creating a physical and attitudinal environment in which business and industry desires to expand.
The ?Farmland Site? is seen as a public destination center and the heart of a much larger reinvestment and regeneration area extending from St. Peter Ave. to the central business district and from Albert Lea Lake and the former Waste Water Treatment Plant to Fountain Lake. Many examples for public / private partnership development are suggested with the first goals being presenting a clean appearance of the site, removal of contamination to the extent required, and development of a land use plan.
Albert Lea Area Listens has clearly defined that the business of Albert Lea is the business of the Citizens and that success can be achieved through facilitated citizen / governmental partnerships. The product that we have to sell is the entire community, its physical, environmental, cultural, and human heart and soul. The ?business plan? addresses each of these areas and focuses on positive directions and five year action plans that can easily be incorporated into this single plan and implemented by many sectors of the community. The plan calls for a continued engagement and involvement by all the community and is not totally dependent on the ability and resources of the governmental entities to implement the plan. The goals are clear and easily implement able in steps by those who choose to be involved. The plan sets guidelines that can be graphically represented in the future.
Has the Albert Lea Area Listens process been successful; has it met the original goals? The process has brought over 600 residents (about 3% of the population) of the area together to listen to each other and to collaboratively develop action plans that will result in an improved community. The participants were not pre-selected and were therefore volunteers from all areas of community life. They were engaged in a facilitated environment where listening took place instead of dominated dialogue or monologue. The process was citizen facilitated and not governmental staff vs. the community. The ideas and visions of the greater community were then focused, but not evaluated, by facilitated volunteer focus groups and again were not dominated by individual agendas.
The process was open to the public at all times and the results can be trusted as representative of the entire community. Many ideas were presented that are not specifically in the five year ?community business plan? but these concepts are not lost and are to be included in appendix information and always available to enhance and encourage discussion during the implementation process and for review in the next five year ?community business plan?.
The process brought a cross section of the community into a trustworthy exchange and communication and should continue to engage and empower the greater community as the plan is implemented.
Change sometimes takes generations. This process has begun a change toward community trust and a positive attitude that will be reflected and seen by those seeking a better place to be. This ?business plan? is still a vision. Specific implementation steps will need to be coordinated and facilitated between citizens and professional staff while other steps will be engaged by organizations and individuals that have the knowledge and assurance that their actions are consistent with the plan and that they are empowered to affect change.
Alex Johnston and Julie Jensen
Co-Chairs
Albert Lea Area Listens
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City of Albert Lea 
