Traverse City is inviting residents across Grand Traverse County to take part in a series of neighborhood-focused community visioning sessions scheduled for Nov. 12–14. Hosted at NMC’s Great Lakes Campus, the Governmental Center, Hickory Hills and the Traverse Area District Library, the meetings are designed to gather local perspectives that will help shape the city’s next strategic priorities.

City organizers say the sessions will begin with a briefing on the project background and a presentation of think‑tank outcomes, followed by facilitated group discussion and a short survey to capture resident priorities and concerns. All sessions are open to any resident, offering multiple opportunities for people across neighborhoods to contribute regardless of where they live in the city.

The visioning meetings represent a deliberate effort to center neighborhood voices in municipal planning. By bringing discussions to community hubs — a college campus, city government building, a residential neighborhood center and the public library — the city is aiming to lower barriers to participation and reach a diverse cross-section of residents. The short survey component is intended to aggregate community feedback in a format that city staff and planners can analyze as they refine strategic goals.

Local impact could be broad. Input gathered at these meetings is likely to influence decisions about public services, infrastructure investments, neighborhood programming and other priorities that shape daily life in Traverse City. For residents, the sessions offer a direct route to signal neighborhood needs and preferences to city leaders, helping ensure planning decisions reflect lived experience across the county.

The format underscores a growing municipal emphasis on participatory planning, where evidence and expert analysis — in this case, the think‑tank outcomes — are balanced with on-the-ground perspectives from residents. That balance is particularly important in a county like Grand Traverse, where small-town dynamics, seasonal population shifts and a mix of residential, commercial and natural assets create complex planning trade-offs.

For community groups, service providers and individual residents, these visioning meetings present a timely opportunity to influence municipal direction. Organizers recommend attending the session most convenient to residents’ schedules to provide input in person, though the city’s website contains further information on the initiative.

As Traverse City moves from preliminary analysis to decision-making, the collected feedback will become a record of community priorities that city staff can use when drafting strategic proposals. The upcoming sessions are a chance for neighbors to help define what the city will prioritize in the years ahead and to ensure those priorities reflect the county’s social, economic and environmental realities. For more details, residents can consult the City of Traverse City’s official website.