The new near Eastside Quality of Life Plan has been certified! After almost a year of hard work by hundreds of near Eastside residents, the new Quality of Life Plan is complete! The new plan has nine sections and will continue to guide the development and future of the near Eastside. 

In order to gain status as a certified plan, the Quality of Life Plan required a thorough engagement plan, a process charter, engagement with city officials, and identified partners for each action item. Certified community plans may be offered as testimony in a public hearing and recommendations in certified plans are used by City staff to amend the City’s comprehensive plan. 

The original Quality of Life Plan was created in 2007 and was designed to provide an actionable, community driven plan that would guide the projects undertaken by residents, non-profits, and private organizations alike. The original plan had over 200 objectives, over 90% of which were completed or are in progress. The neighborhood recognized the need to update the plan, as most of the action items remaining were expired, or no longer applied to the near Eastside. The neighborhood undertook a robust community planning process in mid-2019. 

According to the City of Indianapolis’ Department of Metropolitan Development Community Planning handbook, “The program is designed to encourage excellence in community planning and to maximize the impact of community-sponsored planning initiatives. It enables the Department of Metropolitan Development to leverage the full planning capacity of the Indianapolis community by providing community groups a pathway to influencing the official Comprehensive Plan for Indianapolis and Marion County. The certification expectations ensure planning processes and their resulting plans maintain the high level of accountability and transparency necessary when crafting public policy.” 

We are excited to have our plan certified by the City of Indianapolis and look forward to the implementation of the plan!