From the City Manager's Desk

American Planning Association Recognizes
Build One Portsmouth Comp Plan

Portsmouth’s comprehensive plan, Build One Portsmouth has been recognized across the Commonwealth an?d has become nationally recognized as a model for a resilience-based comprehensive plan. The Build One Portsmouth Comprehensive Plan was recently recognized by the Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association as the 2019 Resilient Virginia Community of the Year. Planning Administrator Brian Swets was also the recipient of the Nelsonite Award as Virginia’s Planning Advocate of the Year. The awards were presented at the chapter’s annual conference awards luncheon July 23, 2019.

The Build One Portsmouth Comprehensive Plan categorizes strategies under four main themes . . . thriving, resilient, evolving and equitable. Each theme serves as an aspect of what it will take to improve Portsmouth over the life of the plan. Each theme is then represented by a vision statement and supported by goals all of which are outlined in the plan. Each goal contains strategies, specific tactics and possible metrics to be used to measure success. Portsmouth residents were invited, during the beginning phases of the process, to participate in the building of the new comprehensive plan. Public meetings were held and residents could weigh-in on topics via the internet.

“We thank the citizens of Portsmouth for their participation in this entire Build One Portsmouth Comprehensive Plan process. We are truly proud of the city’s Planning Department under the direction of Deputy City Manager Bob Baldwin,” said City Manager Dr. L. Pettis Patton.

Aug 13

[ARCHIVED] City Launches Portsmouth Proud Campaign

The original item was published from August 13, 2019 8:52 AM to August 13, 2019 10:42 AM

If you follow any of the social media channels, you know by now that the City of Portsmouth via its Marketing and Communications Department, has launched a Portsmouth Proud Campaign. It’s an effort to enhance the city’s image, increase citizen engagement, create citizen ambassadors and advocates, and strengthen community pride. And most importantly, the Portsmouth Proud Campaign helps us tell the Portsmouth story.

Here’s how it works. We select random Portsmouth residents, business owners and/or former long-time residents and we ask them one question, “What do you love best about Portsmouth?” The end of the video segments always ends the same . . . “I am Portsmouth and I am Portsmouth Proud.” The PCTV Channel 48 crew video records the response and then the spot airs on the city’s station and on social media. The television crew travels all over the city for the Portsmouth Proud segments and the whole interview takes about 30 minutes to complete.

Think about it. We all have things that we love or that we’re passionate about when it comes to Portsmouth. Many of the folks we talked to said that they loved the family-friendly atmosphere of the city, or its small-town flavor or the military history connection.

If you’d like to be a part of this exciting year-long campaign, call the Marketing and Communications Department at 757-393-5143.