City Manager’s monthly message highlights comprehensive planning efforts
Staff Report
City Manager Fidel Maltez has placed an emphasis on communicating with residents since he took office last year. Earlier this week, Maltez recorded the latest in his series of public outreach videos to air on Chelsea Community TV. The text of his March video, which focuses on the city’s comprehensive planning efforts, is below:
Hello Residents of Chelsea, Welcome to our community! My name is Fidel Maltez, and it is my honor to serve as your City Manager.
It is with immense gratitude and a sense of purpose that I announce an important milestone for the future of Chelsea: We have officially launched Phase 1 of Chelsea Pa’Lante, Chelsea Onward – the City’s first comprehensive plan since 1970! This is a bold step forward, and we want to celebrate it with everyone in our community!
We invite you to celebrate this milestone at Chelsea Pa’Lante Fest, a community block party on Saturday, March 15, from 2 to 5 p.m. in Chelsea Square. This event will transform Chelsea Square into a vibrant celebration of our city’s future, with activities for everyone, from miniature golf and face painting to food, shopping, and an opportunity to meet the people shaping our city’s future.
Chelsea Square is the heart of our community, bordered on one end by the Apollonaire Theatre, 189 Winnisimmet Street, and on the other end by our Chelsea Police Station, 19 Park Street. Chelsea Square is a historic place for our community containing Stebbins Fountain and so many of our beautiful arts and sculptures. If you are unfamiliar with the area, signs will be posted to help you find your way.
And to ensure public safety and accommodate the block party’s many activities, we will be closing three streets from 12 p.m. to 7 p.m.: These streets are Winnisimmett St. at Broadway, Broadway at Second St., and Second St. at Park St.
At the event, we will also unveil the new logo for Chelsea Pa’Lante, Chelsea Onward – a visual symbol of our commitment to moving Chelsea forward together. We believe this logo captures
the city’s festive and diverse community and symbolizes both Chelsea’s past and future.
I have to tell you that selecting the logo was not an easy process. Thank you to our residents who participated in the logo survey and who provided their feedback on the process. We will have an opportunity for you to meet and discuss about the logo design process with our comprehensive plan Design Consultant, as well as Chelsea’s future with the people directly involved in the planning process.
This event, just like this plan, is for everyone in Chelsea, because Chelsea Pa’Lante, Chelsea Onward is a community-driven initiative. It is designed to enhance the quality of life in Chelsea through a comprehensive, collaborative planning process. Pa’Lante, meaning “onward” in Spanish, and it reflect the City’s commitment to progress, inclusion, and equity as it plans for the future.
Chelsea Pa’Lante, Chelsea Onward is a plan that will shape Chelsea’s future by setting a strategic vision and providing a coordinated roadmap for the community’s growth and development over the next 15 years.
The planning process for Chelsea Pa’Lante, Chelsea Onward is almost two years long. We started in January 2025 with the first meeting of our Steering Committee. This committee, made
up of residents like you, will guide the process through the end of summer 2026.
We also want you to be a part of this process! We will host collaborative workshops, bilingual engagement activities, and work closely with community organizations to ensure that every voice is heard. Our focus is to make this a true community effort, not a top-down decision-making process.
To stay informed and engaged, visit our new dedicated websites for this plan: You can visit our site in English www.onward.chelseama.gov, or our site in Spanish www.palante.chelseama.gov.
We recommend bookmarking these pages, but for even more proactive updates, sign up for our weekly City Hall News newsletter at www.chelseama.gov/sign-up. You will get updates on upcoming workshops, meeting dates, and how you can share your input. We also encourage you to follow us on social media.
If you have questions or want to learn more about the plan, Chelsea Pa’Lante Fest, or how you can get involved, please reach out to Devon Fields, Deputy City Manager of Operations, at
[email protected]. Devon has been instrumental in guidance this process and she is the right person in our team to lead this effort.
Together, we are writing a new chapter in Chelsea’s story, a chapter where every voice matters, every dream has value, and the future is shaped by all of us, por todos nosotros. I cannot wait
to see you at Chelsea Pa’Lante Fest!
We would also love to see you at our upcoming Community Budget Meeting on Tuesday, March 18 at 6 p.m. at the Chelsea Senior Center. This meeting is a great opportunity to engage on our
annual budget, to learn more about the municipal budgeting process and share your priorities with our team.
At the meeting, you will hear from the City’s Budget Department and Deputy City Manager of Finance, Michael Mason. The team will explain how the City makes decisions about the budget, give an overview of our past budgeting history, and share our financial outlook for the future.
This will be the first of two meetings about the City’s budget. The second meeting will be in April, with the exact date to be announced soon.
We hope to see you there and hear your ideas!
See you next time on Our Community. Thank you and May god bless the City of Chelsea.