Why Plan? – To Be Committed

In observance of National Community Planning Month Rural Resurrection is publishing a series of posts on planning-related topics. Each year National Planning Month is recognized to promote community planning.

A few years ago a post was published on Rural Resurrection during National Community Planning Month entitled “Why Plan?“. This post mentioned a few reasons why it’s important for your community to plan. Through planning, we take stock of where we are now and make a step-by-step path to where we want to be in the future. Continuous attention to planning also helps us stay committed to the plan. Staying committed to the plan ensures that we meet the goals and objectives that we set out for ourselves and our community by implementing the plan as designed.

A Continuous Process

Don’t plan just to plan. It should be part of a continuous planning process. Developing a plan that just sits on the shelf and collects dust is essentially useless. Paper copies of plans should be worn and tattered. They should be marked up with ideas and other possible future changes.

Plans should be reviewed and updated regularly as well. The world is continuously changing, continuously evolving and so should your plans. All too often I have read plans with expansion initiatives for facilities that have been long abandoned. Park plans that include a park that was never developed. Zoning ordinances with uses like liveries, locomotive watering stations, and video rental stores that are no longer viable. Capital Improvement Plans that don’t account for necessary improvements to the sewer plants as mandated by the state. You should keep those plans close at hand and read through them regularly. Or at least thumb through them occasionally while taking a break with your coffee.

Don’t be Afraid to Change

But don’t let those pages get too worn and tattered. What’s the only thing that is constant?

You should look to replace those pages with amendments throughout the life of your plans. As the world changes, the way how you look at your community should too. The amount of changes this world has seen since 2020 alone should be the reasoning to look at your plans again with a mind toward change. Whether it involves a park plan amendment that recognizes the rise in popularity of pickleball courts, or changes to the comprehensive plan changes that hedge against a harmful new type of land use.

Changing a plan doesn’t mean that your community failed in the vision created by the original document. No one can fully predict the future. Just watch “Back to the Future” again or think of the past four years again. Amending your plans on a regular basis is a good thing. Just think of amendments as a set of course corrections that keep your community on the right path to your vision.

Stay Committed to Regularity for Better Success

Just as I tell readers during Implementation Month, regularly set aside time to review your plans. Set a recurring calendar reminder in Outlook, or whatever calendar you use, to remind yourself to look at your plans. Then take the time to review. See what you want to work on implementing next. Look for ways to make the plan better and more current. Read it thoroughly so you can sell others on the vision it sets forth and stay committed to a better tomorrow through planning.