Guide to Community Planning in Wisconsin by Brian W. Ohm

Chapter 1:  Introduction to Community Planning
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2.1  Preparing for the Planning Process

Local communities in Wisconsin often differ a great deal from one another not only in size, but in terms of the issues that drive their planning processes. Rural communities may need to plan for the protection of agricultural or natural areas, for instance, while urban communities may need to plan for the revitalization of blighted neighborhoods. It is therefore inappropriate to develop a "one-size-fits-all" approach to planning. An important beginning point in the planning process is to lay the groundwork for a process that fits the community. This can be called preparing a "plan for planning." Creating a plan for planning makes the transition into the actual plan creation stage much easier.

Given the time and effort required to prepare a plan, it is easy to think of completing and officially adopting a plan as an end in itself. However, a plan is really a means to an end. A plan is to be used as a guide for decision making. There is little value in having a plan if it is not referred to when zoning changes are requested, when capital improvement priorities are being established, and when other actions are being considered that affect patterns of land use and development.

Unfortunately, citizens and local officials often overlook the fact that simply preparing a plan in no way assures that it will be used.

Often local citizens and plan commissioners work hard to make sure that a plan is prepared and then see it ignored and fall into disuse. And, it is not only old plans that fall into disuse. Indeed, having a recently prepared plan is no assurance that a plan will be implemented. Spending one to three years, and a substantial amount of money, preparing a plan that does not meet a community’s needs and that is not implemented, is the worst of all possible outcomes--worse than having no plan at all.

One reason that communities are often disappointed in the plans they produce is that they rush into preparing one, without spending adequate time thinking about why they need a plan, what it should consist of, who should be involved in the planning process, and what process to follow in preparing the plan. Preparing a plan for planning can help make the planning activities of the community more useful and effective. The following pages describe some common sense tips to developing a sound plan for planning.(4)  The section is organized to focus on broad concerns at the start, and narrower process concerns towards the end.

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(4) These tips are drawn from To Produce an Effective Plan You Need a Plan for Planning, by Gene Bunnell, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Extension Report 97-2 (1997).