2.3.2  An Effective Plan Describes Alternative Futures, and the Consequences of Alternative Courses of Action

A good plan provides a glimpse of what the future may hold by describing different scenarios and possibilities. How might the community grow and change over time? What effects might these different outcomes have on quality of life, environmental quality, health and safety, equity and opportunity? An effective plan also identifies specific policies and actions that are likely to lead to these different future outcomes. In other words, if a community wishes to achieve a certain outcome, or avoid an undesirable outcome, what policies, programs, actions and/or regulations should it put into place?

The important thing that citizens and local officials come to appreciate by being exposed to these different scenarios is that no single outcome is predetermined or inevitable. Rather, the community's future will be determined in large measure by the actions and choices that citizens and local officials make now and in coming years.