Life, Liberty & the Pursuit of Americana
Part III in our November series on Implementation and Your Comprehensive Plan The planning commission has a subdivision request on the agenda. The council is trying to decide whether to replace the water tower at its present capacity or build for growth. Across the street, someone wants to put a bakery downstairs and an apartment […]
A Plan Is Something You Do Every planner knows the scene. The comprehensive plan is finished after eighteen months of meetings, surveys, open houses, and drafts. The council adopts it with a round of applause and a photo for the local paper. The consultant goes home. And then the plan goes on a shelf, where […]
At about 5:30 p.m. Eastern on Monday, November 9 (4:30 Central), the Senate clerk will call the roll on a question that, on its face, has nothing to do with power lines, pipelines, wetlands, or historic districts. The formal question is whether to end debate on the motion to proceed to H.R. 2347, the Survivor […]
Last week we looked behind the easy answers when we talk about what it means for a community to be a “success”. What do people really mean when we talk about more people, more jobs, more tax revenue? What are broader measurements for indicators of success? I talked about some of these ideas with the […]
Part One of our series on Implementation of your comprehensive plan. Back on Standard Time The clocks fell back overnight, back on Standard Time where we belong. The sun will be out before we go to work Monday morning here in the center of the Central Time Zone. The trade-off is by the end of […]
We have spent this year talking about planning. January was community engagement. In February, demographics and housing. March economic development and April community facilities. In May, it was health, parks, and the outdoors. In June, communications, utilities, and energy. Then natural resources in July, public safety and hazard mitigation in August, land use in September, […]
When most people talk about a successful community, they talk about more people, more jobs, more tax revenue. Yet, as I asked the Inland Northwest Partners last summer, Is that success? Or are those simple, easy-to-measure indicators of success? When we ask real people what they mean by “successful”, they quickly get down to what […]
Air service, airports, and the rural comprehensive plan October 2026 series: Transportation & the Comprehensive Plan The terminal is small enough to cross in thirty steps. There is one gate, a counter staffed by the same two people most mornings, a vending machine, and a window looking out on a single runway. Twice a day, […]
Rural Opportunity Zones offer another chance. Communities still have to make it count. We all have those projects in town. That red brick commercial building downtown, where the property owner just needs a small boost to make the numbers pencil out on bringing back second story residential units. Or the entrepreneur with a sure-fire idea […]
A renovated building on a struggling commercial corridor is easy to see. What is harder to see — and what matters more — is whether the incentive that helped pay for it actually changed the prospects of the people who live there. That question is worth asking now, as the Opportunity Zones economic development program […]
