DRAFT Goals, Metrics & Actions

Welcome to Annapolis Ahead 2040!


Every ten years, the City of Annapolis updates its comprehensive plan as required by the State of Maryland to create a guiding document for decision-making on local policies, projects, and programs. The format of the plan is driven partially by the State requirements to include direction on a variety of specific topics, referred to as “elements”, which includes municipal growth, land use, housing, transportation, community facilities, sensitive areas, and water resources. The City then develops a structure for the comprehensive plan specific to Annapolis that incorporates these required elements with additional content.

Annapolis Ahead Structure

Annapolis Ahead June Release - Structure GraphicThe Annapolis Ahead 2040 Comprehensive Plan will include eight chapters organized into three aspirational visions of the City which provide the structure for the plan: The Thriving City, The Functional City, and the Adaptive City. Each chapter in turn provides goals, performance metrics, and recommended actions that enable the aspirational visions to become truly actionable over the next 10 to 20 years. In the Comprehensive Plan document, the final recommended actions will be categorized for phased implementation based on short-term, mid-term, or long-term times frames according to their current progress, relevance to other recommended actions, and other factors.

Annapolis Ahead Process

Annapolis Ahead - June 2021 Website -- Process Graphic

The Comprehensive Plan document will include much more than just the goals, performance metrics, and recommended actions, including narrative that describes the existing conditions in the city, photography and graphics that help illustrate these conditions and proposed concepts, and implementation strategies. Yet, the goals, performance metrics, and recommended actions are truly the foundation of the plan, and they have evolved from nearly a hundred meetings, workshops, discussions, and surveys with community members over the last 18 months. As staff from the Department of Planning and Zoning continue to develop a draft plan document that we hope to release in September, we are releasing the draft goals, performance metrics, and recommended actions now to receive community feedback that will help us improve the plan.   

Please help to create the Annapolis Ahead 2040 Comprehensive Plan you want to see!

Follow the links below to review the draft goals, performance metrics, and recommended actions for the various chapters and use the web form provided at the top of each chapter web page to provide constructive comments.  City staff will use your comments to refine the goals, performance metrics, and recommended actions of the comprehensive plan. As you review the draft content, please consider these questions: Is it aspirational enough? Is it actionable enough? What’s missing? What needs to be improved?  

Case Studies  

Finally, to help demonstrate the intent and potential impact of the Comprehensive Plan’s goals, performance metrics and recommended actions, the plan will also include a group of brief case studies focused on large properties within the City that will likely redevelop in the next 10 to 20 years. The case studies will offer insight on how the transformation of these key properties could best serve surrounding communities and the larger city, and how the city in turn could best serve these properties. In developing these case studies, City staff are also seeking input from the community and have created the following dedicated website to share the case study sites and receive input:  https://annapolis-case-studies-annapolis.hub.arcgis.com/

Thank you for your time!

Navigate to the eight chapters to learn more

Guiding Principles

Thriving City

  • Housing Affordability - expand the range of housing choices that are accessible both in terms of geography and affordability, and are responsive to the needs of renters and owners of low to middle income.
  • Improved health outcomes - reducing disparities in premature mortality and levels of fitness and nutrition by neighborhood.
  • Enhanced neighborhood character - context-sensitive neighborhood-serving development that reduces blight and physical incongruity while fostering visual harmony and cohesion.
  • Inclusive economic growth - maintain employment growth at a healthy rate locally in the context of the region and nation, and that increases wages in low-wage occupations.
  • Compact and connected growth - prioritize mixed-uses, connections between adjacent parcels, and shared parking solutions to maximize the proximity of residents to services, leverage infill development opportunities, and minimize negative impacts to sensitive areas.

Functional City

  • Bicycle and pedestrian connectivity - minimize gaps in bicycle and sidewalk infrastructure to improve opportunities for active transportation and recreation.
  • Access to Community Services - new resources to improve health, educational outcomes, opportunities for growth, and to support workforce and community development.
  • Public Realm Designed for Safety and Comfort - improve and enhance the City’s public realm, which includes its streets, parks, trails, and waterways, to ensure all residents and visitors feel safe, mitigate conflicts of use, and are accessible to all.
  • Inclusive access to waterfront opportunity - increase the amount and quality of waterfront space that is publicly accessible for a variety of water-based activities including passive enjoyment.
  • Robust creative economy - support arts and culture through the advancement of inclusive programs integrated with city life, the promotion of the City’s diverse history, and expanded cultural opportunities for all residents and in all sectors of the city.

Adaptive City

  • Minimized carbon footprint- reduce carbon emissions and footprint by working toward carbon neutrality
  • Improved water quality - reduce the amount of polluted runoff into local tributaries, restore stream function, and protect shorelines from erosion.
  • Mitigated and adapted to increased flooding - build resiliency to sea level rise and climate related flooding and reduce economic loss and number of people exposed to climate-related flooding.
  • Mitigated and adapted to changing temperatures - reduce impervious cover while increasing tree canopy coverage, and reduce exposure and incidents related to extreme temperature.
  • Preserved and restored environmental assets - Utilize and limit the loss of natural infrastructure that can help to reduce flooding and storm surge, increases biodiversity, and reduces heat impacts.

Actions Across Annapolis

Although only a fraction of the total recommended actions refer to specific locations within the City,  those that do reference specific locations are identified on the following map. The symbols used for the place-markers correspond to the Comprehensive Plan element with which the action is associated, and clicking on the symbol will show a pop-up window with information about the action.