Project Overview

Scott County covers an area of 375 square miles southwest of the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area in central Minnesota. The County borders the southeast bank of the Minnesota River and is home to small cities, farmland and waterways. Future iQ was engaged to work on two projects for Scott County as it prepared for its upcoming comprehensive planning process. The first project involved facilitation of two scenario planning workshop sessions for the Scott County Environmental Services Department. The first workshop explored understanding of the future drivers that affect solid waste management in Scott County, expectations of the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, and what was wanted locally. The second workshop explored understanding of the future drivers that affect water and watershed management in Scott County. Stakeholders in both workshops considered the potential impacts of future trends on their respective environmental services and created expected and preferred future scenarios for the County.

The second Scott County project supported the Scott County Planning Department in its preparations for the County’s upcoming comprehensive planning process. This involved a community-wide focus group that revisited the current Scott County community vision to assess if it required updating. All three of the Scott County workshops were designed to be intellectually challenging and were meant to encourage innovative thinking using a highly interactive and participatory methodology with an outcome focus.