10

Selling the Plan

Just as stakeholders must understand and endorse both the concept and the process of strategic planning if the plan is to enjoy wide support, they must also understand and endorse the result. The result needs to be sold to the community.

Stakeholders must be told what has been accomplished as well as what they can expect from their leadership and staff in the ensuing years. By explaining and promoting the plan, the local government draws attention to the plan’s existence and its content, which means that promoting the plan will likely encourage greater attention and scrutiny. In short, promotion will create expectations that:

• The strategies of the plan will result in the objectives outlined
• The objectives achieved will lead toward the stated vision
• The vision is one that the community will embrace
• The plan will yield the most positive outcomes for the best value.

Most communities welcome popular interest in the strategic plan. Because strategic planning is seldom carried out entirely by the elected officials and the staff of the local government, community leaders and community-based organizations outside the government can contribute greatly to the accomplishment of objectives. Wide acceptance of the strategic plan can even lead to support for new taxes or fees for specific strategies.

The first step in selling the plan is to include a plan for promotion within the plan itself. Gratiot County, Michigan, formalized the launch of its strategic plan by making promotion one of the plan’s goals.

Goal:

Launch the Gratiot County strategic plan to the community beginning in March 2002.

Strategy:

Build stakeholder support for the plan by presenting the plan to stakeholder groups.

Tasks:

1. Develop a presentation on the Gratiot County strategic plan that can be used to present to stakeholder groups
2. Identify speakers to schedule and present the plan
3. Create a handout that provides background on each strategic plan area of interest, ways for residents to get involved, and a person or organization to contact
4. Develop a media packet that provides an overview of the strategic plan, and designate a spokesperson to deliver it to local media outlets.

Some communities continue to sell their plans during the whole time their plans are in use. For example, the city council in the community of Carrollton, Texas, holds monthly meetings with Carrollton’s city manager to discuss progress being made toward the key goals. Carrollton also printed a glossy brochure, “Carrollton by Design: Taking Stock…A Progress Report,” and included in it a brief bulleted list of major achievements in the implementation of its strategic plan.

• Over $185 million in capital improvements are under way
• Carrollton justice center (municipal court and new jail) opened on schedule and within budget
• New Carrollton library at Hebron and Josey opened to serve 68,000 library-card holders
• Opening of Segment III of the President George Bush Turnpike provided east-west mobility, and segment IV construction to I-635 begins early 2003 (North Texas Tollway Authority project)
• The Carrollton Renaissance Initiative was adopted to guide the redevelopment of the Belt Line Road corridor and historic old downtown
• Redirection of the city government organization as a service business
• DART light-rail stations and area development, traffic, and zoning plans were completed.

Grand Rapids, Michigan, produces a progress report for its stakeholders. The following excerpt from the Grand Rapids 2003–2005 strategic plan reports progress toward the Great Neighborhoods goal in the plan, including some items included in the first three (of eight) sections devoted to the goal.

Great Neighborhoods:

Create and maintain strong neighborhoods throughout the city.

Outcomes:

Strengthen city neighborhoods by implementing the master plan with appropriate policies and implementation strategies in 2003.

• Following acceptance of the master plan by the city commission in December, the planning department began to follow through with recommended implementation strategies.
• A proposal to develop city-owned vacant lots for new housing will be released before the end of 2003.
• A process for updating the city’s zoning code is being developed. A consultant will be contracted by the end of the year to assist with writing and legal review.
• A process to prepare a bicycle and pedestrian facilities plan has begun. This process will result in recommendations and priorities to improve the bike-ability of the city, consistent with the desires expressed by many residents who participated in the master plan process.

Reduce blighting conditions in the community by adopting amendments to city codes and procedures.

• The geographic assignment of inspectors in the housing inspection division was refined to include a supervisor, a property inspector, and clerical support for each team in order to improve responsiveness to neighborhood issues.
• Neighborhood association representatives submit a list of their properties for enforcement action to ensure a focus of efforts on neighborhood issues.
• Neighborhood Improvement hired three seasonal property inspectors to survey neighborhoods and write up orders. Since January of 2003, the department has generated 3,700 TRP cases, of which 98.7 percent have been brought into compliance.

Increase to 75 percent by December 2003 the total number of properties that are brought into compliance, as reported in the 2000 Grand Rapids residential conditions survey.

• The anti-blight team promoted the renovation and reoccupancy of 205 houses, exceeding the established goal by 55 houses.
• A total of 3,577 households was brought into compliance with housing codes. A total of 959 housing units was brought into compliance with zoning and historic preservation codes.
• Of the 670 houses identified with severe or major deterioration, 67 percent have housing cases that have been closed to compliance.

In many cases, the summary of what has been accomplished as a result of the implementation of the strategic plan is very brief. Brevity enables managers to demonstrate results to their stakeholders without letting too much detail discourage readers. A brief set of highlights can introduce a longer summary, capturing the success of the plan and keeping stakeholders informed, whether or not they read the full description.

Ashland, Oregon, placed its status report on the city’s Web page and summarized its progress. An example for housing follows.

I have found that valid plans can have a stabilizing impact on the politics of a community.

—Leonard A. Martin, city manager
Carrollton, Texas

Housing

The city has a responsibility to ensure that proper amounts of land are set aside to accommodate the various housing needs in the city, and that its land development ordinances are broad enough to allow for variation in housing type, costs, and location.

2001–2002 Priorities:

• Develop and implement a long-range fundable/affordable housing plan.
• Revise the density bonus program to provide improved incentives for developing affordable housing units.

Response:

The housing commission has been authorized by the council to hire a coordinator to prepare a housing needs analysis for the community, as well as to develop a plan for affordable housing. The consultant was selected in November, with work commencing on the projects through the end of 2001 and early parts of 2002. It is anticipated that a housing strategy addressing the issue of affordability in Ashland will be available for review and adoption by the council in early 2002.

Tucson, Arizona, places quarterly updates, called the “City Strategic Plan Critical Project Status Report,” on its Web site. Citizens and other stakeholders can follow progress in six critical areas: transportation, downtown development, growth, neighborhoods, economic development, and good government. An excerpt from the July–September 2003 report, taken from the section on transportation, gives a flavor of the updates.

Focus area: Transportation

Strategies for the year:

• Seek and obtain resources necessary to improve the transportation system
• Provide leadership within the region to address transportation system needs
• Develop some alternative land use patterns to promote a more effective transportation system
• Deploy community character and design policies in transportation projects.

Project name	Description	Accomplishments last quarter	Goals for next quarter
1997 bond program; Intergovernmental agreement (IGA) completion projects	To ensure that 1997 county bond projects within city limits with COT have signed IGAs.	IGAs for library and parks projects signed by board of supervisors, mayor, and council; projects moving forward according to schedule. 1997 transportation projects were negotiated to commence contingent on passage of transportation sales tax.	Develop new strategies for building out in light of May 2002 transportation election results.
Transportation initiative and regional transportation plan	Tucson lacks resources needed to preserve existing transportation assets and implement improvements to system. Substantive improvements to transportation system require additional funding and new sources. Proposed half-cent sales tax increase to fund specific transportation improvements, services, and programs will be presented to voters…. Passage of half-cent sales tax increase would provide dedicated funding for improving neighborhood streets, mitigating traffic congestion by expanding existing major streets and intersections, and improving public transit services.	Election held May 21, 2002. Propositions 100 and 400 failed.
Update PAG 2030 regional transportation plan	Three-year update process will create financial strategies, transportation solutions and organizational structure for Tucson region’s transportation system.	Evaluated new population, land use, travel trends, and financial data. Conducted public roundtables to receive input on priorities, funding, community goals and objectives.	Brief elected officials with results of Phase I public input. Develop alternative transportation scenarios and associated funding options based on public input and financial/technical analysis.