Strategic Plan

The City of Dover began the strategic planning process in fall of 2016. The City’s mission, vision, and values provide the foundation for the departmental plans. Each service area developed strategic objectives based upon common core values and guidance offered by the City’s Framework of Excellence. The goal areas for each department are the same, offering consistency and cohesion for readers to better understand the issues which service areas face, and how each department intends to address those challenges.

Extensive analysis of citizen needs and desires, local and national trends, and information provided within the City organization was reviewed to develop these documents. The intention is to demonstrate a strong commitment to provide world-class municipal services for an exceptional community. These objectives will guide the work in all City service areas for the next five years, and form the basis for the FY18 municipal budget requests.

The Strategic Plan is intended as a tool that clearly articulates departmental and service area priorities for the community and policy makers to review. This plan works in conjunction with the City’s larger strategic planning process, which also includes our Master Plan and Capital Improvements Program.

A summary of actions taken to date has been created, reviewing progress on achieving outcome measures. A document bringing those results together was presented to the Dover City Council on March 7, 2018, and is provided below. Another update was provided to the City Council on March 6, 2019. That document also appears below.

Strategic Plans by Service Area

Below are the service area strategic plan summaries developed by each municipal department in the fall of 2016, and winter 2017. These plans were created by each department with an eye on informing budgets and operation activities which will continue the City’s leadership role in the community.

These documents provide more detail about each plan's methodology, issues and challenges, and actions to address challenges.

Strategic Plan Appendices