For almost a hundred years, cities across North America have been the victims of a harmful development pattern that squanders resources and makes our communities financially fragile…
— from the Strong Towns website, “Announcing a New Plan for the Strong Towns Movement”, May 2022.
We’ve often shared stories, here in the Daily Post, that originally appeared on the StrongTowns.org website. The folks involved in the Strong Towns organization care deeply about local governments and local communities, and the way decisions are made in cities and towns — decisions that often turn out to be detrimental to the community’s overall safety and financial health.
Many of the Strong articles deal with streets, and housing, and other types of community infrastructure from a national perspective, but those are certainly issues that also concern us here in Pagosa Springs.
Recently, Strong Towns posted its “Strategic Plan” for influencing the way local decisions are made, and how the citizens can become involved in those decisions. You can download the 8-page Strong Towns Strategic Plan here.
I’d like to make note of the fact that this plan, for a nationwide citizen-driven movement, is 8 pages long.
“Strategic Plans” have been on my mind lately, following a public Zoom session on May 28, with Civic* Possible staff Jason Schneider and Rachel Barra, the consultants recently hired to create a strategic plan for the Archuleta Board of County Commissioners. To kick off the project, Civic* Possible hosted three citizen-engagement events in May. The County introduced the listening sessions this way:
Archuleta County is excited to announce the initiation of its strategic planning process, hosted by Civic-Possible. This important initiative aims to set the direction for the county’s future over the next three years, ensuring that our growth and development reflect the values and needs of our community.
As we embark on this journey, the County is committed to an inclusive and transparent process, encouraging all residents to get involved. Community members will be invited to provide their thoughts and insights through a variety of opportunities including community listening sessions, interviews, and a survey.
I’m given to understand that, in addition to the community listening sessions, ‘Civic-Possible’ conducted several dozen one-on-one interviews with local residents.
On their website, they label themselves “Civic* Possible” with an asterisk.
I believe Civic* Possible is based in Oregon, so presumably, they needed to develop an accurate understanding of our community, in order to set a direction for us.
Presumably, we do not have a direction already set?
Or, it’s the wrong direction?
(Actually, I can’t say for sure that Civic* Possible is based in Oregon, because they don’t list any address for their company, that I can discover. On LinkedIn, their location is listed as “Remote”.)
Later in this editorial series, I’ll share a bit about the listening session in which I participated on May 28. But first, I’d like to consider a few reasons why our local governments are fascinated with the idea of having “strategic plans”, and why such plans are so often a waste of time.
In 1871, Prussian Field Marshal Helmuth von Moltke wrote an essay about military strategy, an excerpt from which has become well-quoted, in various translations.
Kein Operationsplan reicht mit einiger Sicherheit über das erste Zusammentreffen mit der feindlichen Hauptmacht hinaus. Nur der Laie glaubt in dem Verlauf eines Feldzuges die konsequente Durchführung eines im voraus gefaßten in allen Einzelheiten überlegten und bis ans Ende festgehaltenen, ursprünglichen Gedankens zu erblicken.
In 1940, the periodical “Military Review” presented this colorful translation of Moltke.
No war plan extends beyond the first military engagement with the hostile main forces. Only the layman believes that the course of the campaign has followed a predetermined course, which has been planned in detail far in advance, and has been clung to tenaciously to the bitter end.
Of course, government plans — strategic or otherwise — do not often revolve around the idea that they are entering into battle with hostile forces.
But would that be, in fact, a helpful perspective?
From the above County press release about the strategic plan project:
This important initiative aims to set the direction for the county’s future over the next three years, ensuring that our growth and development reflect the values and needs of our community.
A couple of problems with this statement. Are we talking here about “the county’s future” — that is, “the County government’s future”? Or is someone thinking that this will be a plan for “the county’s future” — that is for “the whole community’s future”? Because those are two different projects. My initial understanding is that the BOCC wants a plan for “the County government”. But I could be wrong.
Another problem is to ensure “that our growth and development reflect the values and needs of our community.” As far as I can tell, “the community” does not have a universally-accepted set of values and needs… and especially, it has no clearly defined, and shared, idea about how much “growth” we want and need.
If a “remote” team of consultants is then expected to understand those important issues, and then define a better way forward for the community… well, we obviously have a yet another problem on our hands.
I’m writing from the perspective of a business owner who has never created a strategic plan for any of my numerous business ventures, but who has participated in helping write a couple of strategic plans for local governments.
My first excursion into writing a government plan came began in 2015, when a group of local ladies — all mothers of young children — joined my daughter Ursala and I in researching the possibility of starting a charter school in Archuleta County. Our research eventually produced a charter school application of slightly over 400 pages, that was then presented to the Archuleta School District in 2016, and approved by the District a few months later. Although the document was officially an “application”, it was in essence a “strategic plan” plan for how the future school — Pagosa Peak Open School — would be operated, financed, and governed.
This 400-page “strategic plan” was written entirely by ordinary, ‘untrained’ citizens, with massive assistance provided by the Colorado League of Charter Schools. PPOS is now in its seventh year, having expanded from K-4 to K-8.
The next strategic plan I helped write, outlined a possible future for the San Juan Water Conservancy District…