The final draft of Albert Lea’s new comprehensive plan is now available for viewing on the city’s Web site and at the public library.

Sometime in November, the Albert Lea Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee will meet to discuss any final concerns with the draft, and after the committee votes on it, it will go before the Albert Lea Planning Commission.

While in front of the Planning Commission, there will be public hearings, and then after the commission votes on it, the draft will be sent to the Albert Lea City Council for the ultimate vote.

In the meantime, however, city leaders are seeking final comments on the draft.

“We certainly encourage people to go to the Web site and print it and read through it or whatever so they are familiar with it,” Graham said. “We certainly encourage their comments. We’ll take all comments into consideration and make changes as necessary.

“We’d rather give the public a document that is representative of their ideas.”

The process of forming a new comprehensive plan is one that’s been in the works for several months. In March of 2007, the steering committee selected the consultant firm who would help prepare the new plan, and then in September the first public workshop on the plan was held.

After several more steering committee meetings and other public workshops, the mostly-completed draft was presented in May of this year to the community. Since, it’s also been presented for other community organizations

The city’s last comprehensive plan — which covers several aspects of the community including housing and the downtown to traffic flows and parks and recreation —was made in the early 1970s.

To review the plan online, people can go to www.city.albertlea.org/, click on the “Community Development” tab and then click on “Comprehensive Plan.” Once that page comes up, there’s an explanation of what goes into the comprehensive plan process. Further down is a section called “Final Draft Plan,” which has links to the five different sections of the plan. From there, people can pull up the actual document and review it.

To give feedback on the document, contact Graham by e-mail at bgraham@city.albertlea.org or by phone at 377-4315.