Long Range Planning in the Dark

Call it what you want…Comprehensive Planning, Master Planning, Long Range Planning … every community needs to do it. I do not know one successful business that does not have some plan or idea of where they want to be years from now. Government is no different, or at least it shouldn’t be.

I came across an article at MySanAntonio.Com which encourages the residents of Alamo Heights, TX to participate in their new Master Planning process.
This week Alamo Heights began a month long series of meetings to ask residents and business owners what they want their city to be.

Opinions and stereotypes abound for the prosperous community that is losing affordable housing but gaining residents attracted by its schools and real estate values. But a city document defining its character, goals and priorities has not been written since 1965.

“If we had followed it, we would have been in really good shape,” Mayor Louis Cooper said about the old plan.

That’s right, 1965. Over forty years since this city has done any long range planning.

When one of your local governments embarks upon make sure you attend one of the meetings set up to gather input from the citizens.

It’s like voting. If you don’t vote … don’t bitch.

If you don’t attend one of these meetings … don’t complain when the final document doesn’t reflect your views.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 3rd, 2008 at 11:22 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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