The planning process, from scoping to adoption

Learning objectives

• Explain what "preparing to plan" involves and why scoping comes before analysis.
• Put the typical steps of a plan-making process in order and explain how they overlap.
• Apply a compact policy analysis method to a single policy question.
• Describe the purpose and contents of an existing conditions report.
• Explain how planners handle tradeoffs among many variables and competing policies.
• Describe how a plan is reviewed and adopted, and what keeps it in use afterward.
• Decide when a plan needs a targeted amendment and when it needs a full update.

Key concepts

Preparing to plan

Before collecting a single dataset, a planning team needs to answer some basic questions. This "plan for the plan," usually captured in a scope of work or work program, sets the project up to succeed:

• Purpose: Why are we planning? What decisions will the plan guide?
• Authority and requirements: What does state law require (elements, hearings, adoption procedures)? What's the relationship to existing plans?
• Scope: What geography, topics, and time horizon (often 20 years for a comprehensive plan)?
• Stakeholders and engagement: Who's affected, and how will they be involved? See Designing public engagement.
• Resources: budget, staff, consultants, and data.
• Schedule and decision points: when will the commission and governing body weigh in?

Defining the plan's purpose, scope, and stakeholders is the most important first step. Skipping it leads to plans that sprawl, stall, or answer the wrong questions.

6 more sections follow in the full lesson.

Key terms

• Scope of work: The document defining a planning project's purpose, tasks, deliverables, schedule, and budget.
• Preparing to plan: Setting purpose, authority, scope, stakeholders, resources, and schedule before analysis begins.
• Existing conditions report: A baseline analysis of a community's current conditions and trends.
• Planning horizon: The future year a plan looks toward, often 20 years.
• Alternatives (scenarios): Distinct options for future growth or policy that can be compared.
• Tradeoff: A situation where advancing one goal means giving up some of another.
• Plan amendment: A targeted change to part of an adopted plan.
• Plan update: A full revision that revisits a plan's assumptions, vision, and policies.
• Strategic plan: A shorter-term plan focused on an organization's priority actions.
• Policy analysis: A structured method for choosing among alternative policies: define the problem, set criteria, identify and evaluate alternatives, display them, and monitor the result.
• Adoption: The formal act, by resolution or ordinance, that makes a plan official.
• SWOT analysis: An assessment of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.