Why Plan?

"What are you doing here?" is the question most frequently asked of UACDC team members working in the Cotter area. The UACDC activities for a community design effort are extensive, but basically, we are here to help the community recognize the beauty, uniqueness, and potential of their own town and region. The UACDC advocates the responsible use of land. Our mission is to restore, maintain, and protect Arkansas' small town life through the conservation of farm and forest lands, protection of natural and historic resources, and the promotion of more compact and livable communities.

We do not work in isolation. The UACDC Cotter team develops concepts, ideas, and proposals based on community surveys submitted by Cotter residents, from focus groups held prior to our arrival, through informal public presentations, and from input by community members visiting the UACDC office. The UACDC wishes to gather community members together to initiate the creation of a community plan, or "a vision for the future". This "plan" can be described as a detailed document describing a communities goals, and a step by step process to achieve those goals.

The importance of a shared vision cannot be understated. Implementing a plan is a long and slow process requiring strong community leadership, solid support from city residents, and above all, perseverance. If the community cannot negotiate a common goal, special interest groups will form, move ahead in different directions, compete for resources and approval with other special interest groups, and nothing will happen. Your time and effort will be wasted.

Everyone participates in planning. Planning... for a vacation is something we all have done, and provides a good example to illustrate the importance of a plan. Although a vacation does not have the lasting consequences of a city plan and resulting development, it still makes a fair comparison.

What if you took a vacation without a plan? Let's say you spontaneously decide to spend a long weekend in Boston. Throw a few extra clothes in a bag, grab your toothbrush, and an apple off the kitchen counter as you turn and lock the front door, and head for the garage. Hop in your car, and off to the Fayetteville, AR or Springfield, MO airport. Feels great to be taking a risk, but traveling without a plan makes its first sting upon entering the airport terminal. After standing in line for too long you finally reach the ticket counter and realize you have to pay triple the airfare price because you are buying on short notice. Pay the money, you're on vacation. Now you have to wait around for your flight, which might be several hours, or even the next day. The first night of your unplanned vacation is spent in the airport lounge on an uncomfortable chair.

You had a sleepless night, but it's now the second day of your spontaneous vacation and you're in the air, cruising at 30,000 feet. Relax, you're half way to Boston. It's late April, the weather is fantastic. Aaaah, Boston is beautiful in the spring. Now, well on route to your destination, you strike up a few conversations with nearby passengers. Weirdly, 75 percent of the people on the plane are wearing very bright colored and comfortable shoes. You soon realize that you are one of the few people on board the airplane that is not a long distance runner. When your plane is emptied at the Boston airport, you begin calling around for a hotel room. No rooms, your lack of planning has put you in the city of Boston the weekend of the Boston Marathon. 100,000 runners and spectators have also elected to visit Boston this weekend.., but they all made plans. They have hotel rooms to stay in. You've called around for hours, and the only hotel room available is some dive, out on the strip, 45 miles from the city. Cab fare would be ridiculous, so you have to rent a car to find your lousy hotel room.

Your whole weekend follows the same pattern of one awful experience after another. You arrive home from Boston thinking it's the most disgusting place on earth. Your lack of a plan cost you considerable time, energy, and resources (money); and left you with only a warped experience of a very lovely city.

Sadly, many of our small towns and cities develop in similar ways to your bad vacation. But a cities plan, or lack of plan, has far more lasting consequences, is shared by large numbers of people, cannot be easily ignored, and like the Titanic, once set in motion, is difficult to turn around. So, what is a plan? A "plan" is a detailed document describing a communities goals, and a step by step process to achieve those goals.

Important Points

Planning is more than securing industry and economic growth. Aesthetic decisions and passion for a sense of place are extremely important. A plan should consider: natural resource protection, historic preservation, community values, education, transportation, health services, housing, safety, entertainment, infrastructure, recreation, and much more.

Planning will not produce immediate changes. Implementing a plan is a long and slow process requiring sound local support, strong community leadership, tenacity, and above all, perseverance. A great community does not gain its character in a week, a year, or even a decade. Planning is the responsibility of each and every community member.