Why Plan?

In observance of National Planning Month, we ask the question “Why Plan?” Plans are integral pieces to well-run communities. They help us organize our time and provide direction in our quest to reach our goals as a community. 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.

Those who have not idea of where they want to be in the future have a hard time accomplishing much. Often, what they do accomplish does not take into account unintended consequences. Hence, the community takes one step forward and two steps back. These ill-fated decisions are not good when you are the custodian of local tax dollars.

Basis for Decision-Making

Regularly communities must make tough decisions about natural, man-made and financial resources. Planning allow for input into the decision-making process. This makes for a better plan for all and improves the overall consensus on a selected decision.

Planning also gives you a legal basis for many of your future decisions. Being able to point to a plan created well-ahead of an important decision gives your choices more legal credibility. A community holding firm on not allowing rezoning of a residential area to industrial to protect the adjoining residential land owners has more credibility in court if the town’s comprehensive plan backs that decision.

Be Committed

But 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 constantly changing, constantly evolving and so should your plans. All too often I have read plans with expansion initiatives for facilities that have been long abandoned. Zoning ordinances with uses like liveries, locomotive watering stations, and video rental that are no longer viable. Capital Improvement Plans that don’t account for necessary improvements to the sewer plant s mandated by the state.

So if you aren’t going to use your plan, if you aren’t going to update it regularly, don’t plan. The work involved in the process to do it right is not worth it.

Dream, Then Make it Happen

But if plans invigorate you. If they help you dream. If they give you a direction to a better future that you are excited to follow, then plan. Plan for a better future for your community. Then use that plan to get there.