Why plan? This question has been raised frequently.
There are those people who view a Comprehensive Master Plan
as another layer of bureaucracy that will hamper the free
enterprise system in the Parish. There are those who lament
the lack of a Comprehensive Plan to help coordinate and
provide community direction and priorities.
How many people or companies build a business without a plan?
How many homebuilders build a house without construction blueprints?
How many developers build a subdivision without a set of plans?
The annual budget of the Lafayette Consolidated Government is
approximately $600 million. Multiply that number over a short
period of ten years and that equals $6 billion!! What corporate
business entity manages that type of funding without a plan?
There is a culture and history in south Louisiana that brings
people together for food, fun, faith and compassion, but rarely
for common community objectives. Coordination, cooperation and
communication do exist, but on a modest level at best. The
organizational structure of government is heavily fragmented,
as is the local society where all parts mind their own business
and stay out of the turf of others. It is this exemplary
fragmentation that produces consistent inefficiencies in government.
In budget hearings with a new council in 2008, I was asked by one
of the councilmen, why he should vote to fund a Comprehensive
Master Plan. Recognizing I only had thirty seconds to answer rather
than the thirty minutes I would have preferred, I said, "A
Comprehensive Master Plan is a process that brings the private sector
and the public sector together, and through consensus better
leverage limited resources and achieve greater efficiencies for
both in the short term and long term."
A Comprehensive Master Plan is less about a final document or
map and more about a process that brings together government
departments and agencies working together for common identified
community objectives and goals. The democratic process is
certainly desirable over most alternatives, but it does have some
characteristic weaknesses. Four-year election cycles and good
guy/bad guy politicizing are not conducive to building or
implementing long term community vision, goals, strategies
and coordination. A comprehensive community plan works to balance
the political process and provide continuity and direction over time.
Many years ago there was a planning staff member who faithfully
and diligently put in his eight hours of work each day, five days a
week and accomplished more than satisfactory work tasks. He often
went beyond what was required of him. He was always dependable. Yet,
he never asked for a raise or promotion. He never complained. He
did what he was asked to do and I could always depend on him.
I stopped by his desk one day and asked what he wanted professionally.
He answered, "I am like a leaf floating in the bayou and I just go
wherever the current takes me." I thought at the time his answer was
analogous to cities lacking a comprehensive plan.
The Comprehensive Master Plan is designed to look back on what is
best about the community and how to keep it and to look ahead at what
it wants to be and how to achieve it. What the final results will
be - - - - only time will tell.
Michael Hollier, AICP
Planning Manager
August 10, 2009
|
