Title: 10 Keys to Making A Great City Plan - Blogs | Planetizen
Headings: 10 Keys to Making A Great City Plan
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10 Keys to Making A Great City Plan
10 Keys to a Great Plan
1) Create a plan for TOMORROW, not yesterday or today. Keep the conversation on "where the puck is GOING to be."
2) Plan for OUTCOMES, rather than time-frames.
3) Speak and write HUMAN. Don't be boring!
4) Know WHAT in your plan is a consolidation, a tweak, and a rethink.
5) Don't make readers play "where's Waldo" with your plan's BIG IDEAS. Put them up-front—better yet, design your plan around them!
6) Have the confidence to design your plan with both FLEXIBILITY and CLARITY, and the wisdom and experience to know when to prioritize each.
7) Emphasize FOLLOW-THROUGH in every step, policy and decision.
8) Don't be shy to put the cities needs and tough choices up-front. Do the math!
9) Be BOLD, and don't be afraid to risk "competent failure." Empower your team to be clever, creative, and fast!
10) Realize the CATALYTIC power of a plan. Every plan can be a game-changer!
Brent Toderian
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Content: The important thing isn't the speed of growth, but the nature of growth. It's based in part on the realization that planning has a lot more control over the "what" than the "when." Frankly, the one thing we know about population projections, which tend to project past trends forward assumming the future will be the same as the past, is that they will be wrong—by how much and in which direction tend to be the only surprises. Source: City of Abbotsford "AbbotsForward" Plan Process. Planning for outcomes, including a specific population level, powerfully changes everything in the plan-making process for the better, from the way we frame the public conversation (watch this), to the way we connect servicing and land-use decisions. The conversation focuses on how we are going to "land" those additional people in ways that will meet our goals for a different city at the NEW population than we were at the OLD population. In my observation, every ripple effect of that decision has led to better conversations, more focused work, and better results, and everyone from the mayor, to the public, to the city engineers have applauded the different approach. 3) Speak and write HUMAN. Don't be boring!