Mt. Pleasant's Main Street
Planning
Planning: It really is important!
Once you have done your assessment, identified your history, have committed partners, and have discussed a community vision, you can get specific with your plan.
But it sounds hard. Can you make it simple?
Yes, we can!
Planning is as simple as answering four questions:
1. Where are we now?
2. Where are we going?
3. How do we get there from here?
4. Evaluate: How did we do?
You already answered Question 1 when you did the assessment. Now answer Questions 2 and 3.
If you want a little more information, read on. Better still, read The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook, by Tom Borrup.
Want an effective one-evening jumpstart on planning for heritage development?
State History can bring facilitators to your community. This very effective 2-3 hour workshop will help you identify your heritage resources, begin to form partnerships, and identify a joint project to work on. Contact Wilson Martin.
Want more details on planning? Here are some more suggestions.
Involve peopleBe sure to include all partners and stakeholders—in fact, as many community members as you can.
Describe the community’s present reality (or—Where are we now?)Review the community assets. You could map the physical assets on a big sheet of paper.
Add other pertinent information: Social and economic conditions, demographics, political realities, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
Get the big picture in focus (or—Where are we going?)- Review the shared vision that community members agreed on.
- Choose the community’s most important, key asset. This is the engine that will drive your community development.
- Brainstorm how you can use that asset to help make shared vision reality. You will also use your other assets, but they will support your main asset.
- If you choose, name your community’s unique identity. Spend time coming up with a succinct, memorable tagline—based on your key asset. Examples: “Ogden: It’s All Within Reach, “Cedar City: Festival City USA,” or “Springville: The Art City.”
- Identify the specific outcomes you want to achieve.
- Identify how you will measure those outcomes.
- Identify and choose strategies that can lead to the outcomes.
- Figure out what needs to be done (action steps)
- Put it all into a plan, with assignments and timelines.
- Make sure someone assumes responsibility for moving the plan forward.
These planning steps were taken (loosely) from a valuable book called The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook. The information in this book is good and comprehensive, so we haven’t duplicated it here. Communities throughout Utah have used this process, and we highly recommend that you check this book out.
Links and Resources
Image of the City, a book by Kevin Lynch, is a valuable resource for exploring ways to make a community more memorable and livable for visitors and residents.
See the State Historic Preservation Office's strategic plan for historic resources in Utah.
See State History's latest strategic plan.