While the preliminary draft of Shelbyville's comprehensive growth plan shows where new development will likely to occur, it also lists a series of goals and objectives for the city's future.

The plan, which is supposed to cover a 20-year period from 2005 to 2025, is being drawn up by the design firm of Barge, Waggoner, Sumner and Cannon (BWSC) and calls for the expansion of Shelbyville's Urban Growth Boundary (UGB) to the north.

The goals were developed through meetings with Shelbyville's planning commission, the Board of Mayor and Aldermen, city employees, along with other agencies, organizations, landowners and citizens.

Aside from promoting the health, safety and welfare or the community and improving the quality of life, the goal is also to promote a mix of land uses that would be appropriate and compatible "with the desired character of the City of Shelbyville."

Other goals are to improve the physical appearance to the entrance points of the city, attract a higher percentage of visitors, obtain a better mix of retail businesses in the Main Street area, promote coordinated physical development in accordance with present and future needs, and set follow and maintain high standard for future development.

Objectives for the city were split up into separate categories for different types of developments.

At the top of the list for residential development, the city is encouraged to look into opportunities for development of retirement housing, including designation as a Tennessee Certified Retirement City.

Opportunities should also be provided for a variety of residential development to encourage a balanced housing market with increased housing availability and choice. Zoning and land use should be reviewed and the city should promote its attributes, like a low property tax and low utility bills, to potential resident groups.

Continued commercial development should be encouraged "to offer a full range of shopping opportunities to residents," the draft report reads, and efforts should continue to improve the retail mix in the downtown square shopping area to attract more visitors and increase the weekend traffic flow.

The plan states that the National Main Street Program and the State of Tennessee's Main Street Area program should be utilized, and entrance identification needs to be improved, including directional signs to the downtown area from Highways 231 and 41-A.

The Main Street Shelbyville program is promoting April as "membership month" and will offer special introductory rates for 2008 memberships.

Memberships are available to anyone interested in supporting the program and are available online at www.uptownshelbyville.com or by calling 680-1070.

Office uses should be guided to second story spaces in the downtown region or to other areas of Shelbyville instead of first floor retail spaces and commercial development should be encouraged at a scale appropriate to the size of the city, with the notation that " 'Big box' retail is not desired at all locations."

More industrial development is encouraged to broaden the economic base and provide more jobs and new users should be recruited for current vacant industrial spaces and additional industrial land should be provided for development.

Redevelopment of brownfield/abandoned industrial locations should be encouraged at sites that could bring traffic back through the city and planners. Planning commissioners and other community development professionals should be included in the 3-Star Benchmarking process in order to share the same goals.

Expanding tourism opportunities is another area where work is needed to attract more of the outdoor recreational users, the draft plan says. Planning and work to provide a stronger connection from the Main Street area to historical sites and the Argie Cooper Library is encouraged.

Developing the area's cultural tourism activities is encouraged, such as items related to the Walking Horse industry, local heritage, farming, Normandy Lake and the fish hatchery and the Civil War history of the region.

Parks and recreation facilities should be provided throughout Shelbyville to serve the existing and potential residents, developers should be required to provide open space in new subdivisions and the framework for connectivity between recreational sites should be planned and the continued development of the city's greenway program is encouraged.

For the topic of transportation, the completion of the bypass around the northern parts of the city is a must. Landscaped medians should be installed to slow traffic entering the downtown area and locations within Shelbyville need to be identified where roadway and intersection improvements are needed.

Other suggestions:

* Identify the areas where decorative street lighting, streetscape, signs, underground utilities and pedestrian crosswalks can be developed to encourage travel by foot.

* Plan for infrastructure needs in the area where growth is anticipated, along with developing a Capital Improvement Plan for guiding the long range infrastructure and community facility improvements and development and determining what the available capacity of the city's sewer treatment plant is.

* Improve the appearance of entrance points to Shelbyville, as well as having more definition and identification of the city's boundaries, along with landscaped entrances at all entrance points and identifying areas where sidewalk repairs are needed.

* Improve communication with county officials to gain more input on decisions impacting land use next to Shelbyville's borders along with a redevelopment plan for Main Street or other areas in need of it.

* Tennessee's Courthouse Square Revitalization Program should be used for improvements to the business district and the Main Street area as well as an incentive program for developers who reinvest in targeted neighborhoods or the Main Street area.

* A redevelopment plan that serves as a long term strategy should be created on how community resources can redevelop a targeted area or neighborhood and the use of Form Based Codes that focus on various design elements in lieu of the type of land use.

* Investigate and consider challenges related to water restrictions in the Duck River watershed.