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HomeMy WebLinkAbout03-30-18 Public Comment - J. Moor - Strategic PlanFrom:Web Admin To:Chuck Winn Subject:[MARKETING] Strategic Plan Comment Form Date:Tuesday, April 03, 2018 10:12:15 AM A new entry to a form/survey has been submitted. Form Name:Strategic Plan Comment Form Date & Time:03/30/2018 9:53 PM Response #:25 Submitter ID:5893 IP address:172.24.96.111 Time to complete:57 min. , 1 sec. Survey Details Page 1 We want to hear from you! First Name Jay Last Name Moor Email jjmoor@msn.com Questions or Comments First, this is not a strategic plan. It is a laundry list of generally desirable actions which are not connected to each other by means of an overarching goal, prioritization of problems and assessment of resources. It is not even what we used to call a comprehensive plan. It has no empirical foundation as a baseline for policy priorities. I suspect department heads were simply asked to list their priorities and this is the result (unless their is a much more detailed plan hiding somewhere.) In my experience as both a city planner and head of strategic planning for a UN agency, a strategic plan is an organized response to conditions and trends that addresses greatest threats, highest priorities and real constraints -- both internal and external. I can detect no policies in this plan/"vision" statement that explicitly do this. I see no analysis or even background information that would aid in formulating options for the future or for setting priorities among those options. Internally the document is unbalanced with some topics being given a mention and others treated as already designed programs that simply need the go ahead. There is little or no connection among any of these statements. How committed are we, for example, to saving prime farmland as opposed to encouraging profit-driven development anywhere in the valley? What are the quantifiable and intangible tradeoffs between economic gain and environmental loss? What are the red-lines that cannot be crossed in the future if we decide to prioritize one goal over another? Where is compromise possible and how would it be shaped by our selection of goals? How can any non-economic goals be achieved if our politicians keep saying that creation of jobs, jobs, jobs is more important than anything else, without realistically discussing the number and full range of jobs/wages that come with various types of development? Why don't we require submission of development economic balance sheets with developers' proposals? Why don't we use Ian McHarg's Design With Nature and a GIS to determine environmental areas sensitive to development and drawing functional lines around the most sensitive areas to delimit development? Why don't we consider advance purchase of land for strategic infrastructure and facilities? Can't we adopt something like a system of development rights transfer to equitably reimburse land owners for the public use of their land? Why aren't we combining the planning functions of city and county? Why do we let the School District determine the future land use pattern of the city? If the answers to these question involve state law, why aren't we more involved in lobbying the legislature and educating the public? What national and global factors could conceivably harm or boost Bozeman's sustainability? Must we simply roll with the effects of externalities or is there something we should be planning for -- like the impacts of an all-out trade war? These are all questions that should be addressed by a strategic plan. Some may seem too irrelevant, politically impossible or off-the-wall to waste city resources trying to deal with. But we won't know that until they are brought into an objective planning process. At the very least, I would start over by describing the issues we face -- existing and projected -- and try to quantify their status and trends so the public can help decide on priorities. Then, settle on a handful of key goals in support of which all other goals can be organized. Don't compromise too early in the process. After all it is the planning process, with proper resident involvement, backed by good technical analysis, that will point to strategic objectives and priorities for action. Thank you, City Of Bozeman This is an automated message generated by the Vision Content Management System™. Please do not reply directly to this email.