After a public hearing carried over from its first meeting in July, the Marion City Council unanimously approved an update to the city's comprehensive plan last Thursday, July 15.

A comprehensive plan is a document that itemizes a city's goals and provides guidance on achieving those goals, such as outlining design standards and zoning criteria. Marion's comprehensive plan was last updated in 1998.

The city has been working on the updated plan since the fall of 2008, and has held a number of open houses and public input sessions during the various stages of the process, most recently earlier this spring, when a draft of the plan was unveiled at a couple of open houses prior to being considered by the city's Planning and Zoning Commission.

At the council's July 1 meeting, Mayor Paul Rehn left the public hearing open until last week's meeting to give the public more time to provide input. No one spoke at either of the two hearing sessions.