Oshtemo Charter Township’s Board of Trustees unanimously adopted a 2026–2029 strategic plan at its June 23rd meeting, giving the Township its first formally structured roadmap for governance priorities in years.
The plan was developed over six months with strategic planning facilitator Dr. Peter Dams of Dams & Associates. The process included individual board member interviews, two half-day retreats in April and May, and three additional steering committee sessions to refine goals and set objectives. The steering committee included Supervisor Cheri Bell, Clerk Dusty Farmer, Trustee Kristin Cole, and Operations Coordinator David Kobb.
The plan organizes the Township’s work around three goals.
The first is building a stronger community identity — something board members identified repeatedly during pre-retreat interviews as a gap. The plan calls for developing a community hub concept, investing in branding and design, engaging residents in defining what makes Oshtemo unique, and connecting that identity to the Township’s parks and physical spaces. The work is phased through 2029, with near-term steps beginning this summer.
The second goal focuses on organizational structure — aligning Township staffing, facilities planning, and internal operations with the 2045 Comprehensive Plan. This includes annual staffing assessments, a capital improvement committee retool, customer and staff satisfaction surveys, and improved communication across jurisdictions.
The third goal is the one that drew the most discussion at the June 23rd meeting — and the one Supervisor Bell described as a decade in the making.
The plan formally commits the Township to exploring whether the charter township form of government remains the most advantageous structure for residents and governance. That exploration doesn’t mean a change is coming — but it does mean the Township will now systematically study the question rather than discuss it informally. The plan sets a target of January 2028 for the board to make a decision on whether to pursue a different form of government, such as a village or city. Between now and then, the plan calls for community input sessions, research into how other Michigan townships have navigated similar decisions, an impact report examining how each form of government would affect services like police, fire, and public works, and a formal stakeholder communication plan.
“It takes something that has been talked about for a really long time and puts some wheels under it,” Bell said at the meeting.
Residents will have opportunities to weigh in throughout the process. The first community input sessions are targeted for July 2026.
