Planning Projects Outside the Box

In observance of National 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.

When the subject of community planning arises, most minds float to the comprehensive plan, the mother of all plans. A deeper dive into the realm of planning gets into specific area plans like streetscape planning, park plans, and economic development plans that concentrate on a specific subject, but are still relatively common.

Yet, community planning is much more flexible and can be applied in a much wider array of ways. Communities should start thinking outside the box when considering their next planning project. Here are a few ways communities have planned outside the box.

Arts, Culture, and Wayfinding Plan – Bondurant, Iowa

The title of Bondurant’s recent plan may be a bit perplexing to some. Arts, Culture, and….Wayfinding??? Yes, Bondurant understands the linkages that can be made between these three subjects. I, on the other hand, was slow on the uptake on this idea while working on a wayfinding plan for my own community. Thankfully, I had a City Administrator with a planning background and an Assistant City Administrator who both craved artistic wayfinding and pushed for its inclusion in our plan.

Bondurant’s plan focuses on three signature projects to make an impact on this central Iowa suburb. The ARTocka Trail Loop, Downtown Entry, and Downtown Art Alley were designed to increase connectivity, encourage exploration, and showcase Bondurant’s unique identity.

The plan provides realistic implementation tools that help guide its implementation. With timelines, cost estimates, and even artist selection rubrics, the plan helps Bondurant with the first steps to changing the concepts within the plan into a reality.

North Iowa Corridor Joint Comprehensive Plan

At the start of this post, I challenged everyone to think beyond comprehensive plans. But there’s one comprehensive plan that I think deserves attention. This is the North Iowa Corridor Joint Comprehensive Plan. A joint effort of Mason City, Clear Lake, and Cerro Gordo County in northern Iowa.

Being a relative stone’s throw from each other, it makes sense for Mason City and Clear Lake to collaborate on such a plan. Adding the underlying county to the planning effort glues these entities together for a common focus.

Each of the cities has its own unique history, heritage, and culture. So such a plan can not be just a wide brush stroke that paints each community in the same light. Clear Lake’s portion of the plan focuses more on tourism and recreation. Whereas, Mason City’s puts a spotlight on the community’s historic downtown, neighborhoods, and recreation assets.

However, they also share commonalities in music and the arts that can be leveraged more effectively through a joint effort. Through the common policies and goals these communities share, they can work together for the greater good of the entire area.

Bicycle Tourism Plan – Ankeny, Iowa

The term “bicycle tourism” is discussed quite a bit on Rural Resurrection. I can go a year without my RAGBRAI ramblings! But most communities only mention bicycle tourism as a subsection within an overall bicycle and pedestrian plan. But not Ankeny, Iowa.

This plan was already completed when Ankeny hosted RAGBRAI in 2023 as a meeting town on the way to Des Moines on day four of the event. Although temperatures that day were excessive, it appeared to have been a very successful event for the community. However, it was a little less successful for the Buff Riders that day. The battery on our bus, “Buff Force One”, died after an hour of running idle with the AC on full blast (we were exhausted by the heat). I did, however, accomplish a rather interesting feat that day, jump-starting a bus with a solar panel.

Sitting between Ames and Des Moines, Ankeny is a fast-growing suburb with a constant stir of development throughout the community. But the city is also uniquely situated with connections to prominent local and regional trails. The community drafted their Bicycle Tourism and Economic Development Strategies planning effort with the goal to identify implementable strategies aimed at spurring economic development through the two-wheeled tourism sector.

Along with results of the public input process and the market analysis, the plan sets forth 10 action items targeted to help spur bicycle tourism in this central Iowa town. If you have time and you’re interested in bicycle tourism, check the plan out.

Don’t Be Afraid to Try Something New

The point of this post is to open up your eyes to the other realms of planning that are possible through community planning efforts. But these are just a few examples of how your community’s planning efforts can be outside the box. So get creative and think of new ways planning can help your community.