The Capital Needs Assessment is a critical component of the City’s long-term financial management and forecasting process. By identifying needed capital investment and improvements over a five-year time horizon, City staff and officials can work to prioritize projects and initiatives, allocate available funding and identify potential partners and outside funding resources. In the spring and early-summer of each year, City staff review and update the prior year’s Capital Needs Assessment and document emerging projects and issues in the five-year planning horizon. The updated Capital Needs Assessment is shared with City Council and the public in advance of the budget process, in order to provide ample time to discuss the identified projects and determine which projects should be included in the annual budget request. Compiling the Capital Needs Assessment is a first step toward developing a long-term Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) for the City. Gahanna has historically adopted a one-year CIP annually as a part of the annual budget process. The Capital Needs Assessment provides City staff and officials with the information needed to develop a longer-term CIP which could be helpful for the City in forecasting expenditures and revenue needs over the five-year period.