Strategic Plan
The City of Wilmington is looking to its future with the adoption of its 2025-2030 Strategic Plan. Approved by City Council in February 2024, the plan sets forth a vision for how the city will create a better place to live, work, and play for residents and visitors alike.
The city worked with community members, stakeholders, and city employees to develop the plan’s design and content.
Each focus area outlines three objectives and three associated initiatives to drive progress. It also informs department business proposals and annual individual work plans.
Collectively, these elements allow the city to be transparent about its goals, intentional in its efforts and accountable for results. The city’s core values of collaborations, creativity, inclusion, and accountability are the foundation from which the strategic plan was built.
Acting as a roadmap to guide the city’s work, the strategic plan focuses on five key focus areas:
What does this mean for residents?
Outlined in this five-year plan is the need for more quality, affordable housing options and engagement with community members to foster vibrant neighborhoods. The city will also concentrate on attracting new businesses, growing current ones, and enhancing Wilmington’s position as a tourism, entertainment, and cultural destination.
The plan aims to reduce violence, especially among youth, and expand programs that assist people experiencing homelessness or substance abuse issues. It also takes steps to establish an efficient, sustainable multimodal transportation network, geared at reducing congestion, improving roads and sidewalks, and maintaining city infrastructure.
Internally, the city will implement new methods of recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce while developing consistent customer service standards to increase accessibility to its services.
Strategic Plan Initiatives
Vision Zero focuses on moving people safely by prioritizing pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and other vulnerable users in planning and design. Road systems and related policies are shaped to ensure that inevitable human mistakes do not result in severe injuries or fatalities.
The Police Activities League (PAL) is a proactive community policing program designed to connect police officers with the youth in their community by engaging boys and girls in positive sports and activities that improve their quality of life, present developmental opportunities, and offer the prospect of a brighter future.
Its concept is based on the belief that if kids are reached early enough, they can develop strong positive attitudes toward police officers in their journey through life toward the goal of maturity and good citizenship.
Moving to a living wage based on 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI) helps both employees and the community. For workers, it means more steady pay, less financial stress, and a better chance of staying in their jobs. This helps them focus on doing their work well. For the community, it leads to more reliable services and better results for residents. Setting this standard can also encourage other employers to raise their wages, helping improve pay across the region. By taking the lead, the city sets a positive example, supports the local economy, and shows it values both its workers and its community
Affordable housing programs, including the creation, preservation, maintenance, and conversion of housing units, are an organizational priority. This commitment is demonstrated through Council’s general fund contributions to sustain previously federally funded housing repair programs, as well as the dedicated one-cent property tax allocation supporting affordable housing initiatives.