Dear Canton Citizens, Businesses and Future Investors:

I am excited to have the opportunity to introduce you to the primary components of the City of Canton's Roadmap for Success. Our roadmap is a plan but also a call to action that organizes the steps of local leaders, private and non-profit organizations, residents, and businesses toward a shared vision for how our city operates through 2035. First and foremost, it is a community plan - one informed and guided by public input to empower our citizens to be co-creators for their city, strengthen local connections, and generate support and enthusiasm for how we will work together to build the Coolest Small Town in America.

This is an important time for the City of Canton, and its growth and development must reflect how our citizens and stakeholders choose to live, work, play, and serve to achieve its full potential. Decades of leadership and collaboration have positioned Canton for greatness, and continued partnerships in City and community building must enlighten our strategic path forward.

In addition to citizen input, I want to especially thank our dedicated City Council, City Manager, and City Staff for their hard work and commitment to moving Canton forward. As you can imagine, a strategic document of this scale is not created without a tremendous amount of thought, effort, research, and brainstorming. Most of all, I want to thank my colleagues and our citizens for their trust and confidence as we continue this partnership over the next 15 years. Our roadmap will make our decisions more efficient and help to clarify our calculated tradeoffs, but it will also be a work-in­progress. We will make mid-course modifications as needed, and we will hold developers and ourselves accountable to our long-term strategy.

In developing this strategic plan, we integrated the numerous goals and tactics into eight overall guiding principles, or tenets, for Canton's future success. Each tenet is a commitment from the Mayor & Council to our residents, businesses, and partners as a platform for thoughtful review when considering new development projects, establishing budget priorities, and approving local guidelines and procedures to optimize city operations. Our tenets are:

• Creating Great Neighborhoods
• Celebrating the Diversity of Our Community
• Advancing Regional Economic Success
• Enhancing Historic Downtown Canton
• Sustaining Our Natural Environment
• Connecting Citizens to Parks and Recreation
• Improving Infrastructure for Future Demands
• Leading with Excellence

The following pages summarize our initial goals and strategies for achieving each of these tenets, and we will continue to build on this foundation. The primary goal of our roadmap is to guide our leaders, citizens, businesses, and investors in the same direction. We will alter our route based on clear metrics and continual public input, but our destination will not shift as we attain our status as the Coolest Small Town in America.

Now, let's get to work!

Sincerely,

Mayor Bill Grant

Los Principios para el Futuro de Canton

The Tenets for Canton's Future

The City of Canton will follow eight tenets for the successful planning of our future.  Each tenet is a commitment from the Mayor & Council to our residents, businesses, and partners as a platform for thoughtful review when looking at new projects, developing budget priorities, and approving local rules and procedures for operations in the City.