CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (CBS19 NEWS) -- Charlottesville City Manager Sam Sanders got new direction from city leaders in the form of a strategic plan Tuesday night. It's the first time Council has adopted one since experiencing the fiscal impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. It will replace the current plan, which has been extended multiple times.

"Basically guides, what are the priorities that the city council is giving to the city manager, for what we want to see the city manager execute and deliver on over the next five years," says City Councilor Michael Payne.

City leaders like Payne say the vision for the city of Charlottesville is to be a place where everyone thrives. To accomplish this, the city hopes to commit to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion by implementing equitable practices and policies across all activities.

"High-level goals, and then from there, we are really going to dig down into specifics about key performance indicators, specific benchmarks in terms of timeline, deliverables," says Payne.

Some of these high-level goals include affordable housing, public safety, and climate action. The strategic plan is not to be confused with the city's comprehensive plan.

"The comprehensive plan is city-wide and guides all city policy. We judge every policy decision, every land use decision against the comprehensive plan. The strategic plan is really more for the city manager and is really specifically about that council, city manager relationship," says Payne.

Sanders will be having a meeting with his staff Wednesday morning to begin tackling the nine strategic outcome areas.

"It's a document that you try to live by, and you spend less time changing it, but where necessary, you bring things back, and you have conversations about those things and consider whether or not you are willing to do so," says Sanders.

City Council adopted the framework with a 5 to 0 vote. Sanders hopes to give Council quarterly updates as progress is made.