Put it all together in a plan
Your ultimate Capital Facilities Plan, which is a chapter in your jurisdiction’s comprehensive plan, is a combination of narrative and spread sheets that document your jurisdiction’s intentions to address its capital facilities needs over the next six to 20 years. It has several parts:
a. The Capital Facilities Inventory described above
b. Descriptions of capital projects proposed over the next six to 20 years, including a description, their cost and timing
c. A Financial Plan showing how the jurisdiction will pay for the Plan
d. A Comprehensive Plan Policies Matrix showing the relationship of the projects proposed in the Plan to the Comprehensive Plan policies
These elements can be tied together with an introductory summary of the contents of the Plan and what it will achieve for the jurisdiction.
These plans can be very elaborate. But they can be simple. You can combine the tools you’ve already used to generate elements of the Plan to create the final document. For example, with a simple table of contents, you can insert the Capital Facilities Inventory (step 1); each Capital Facilities Project Proposal Form (step 2), with a Project Cost Worksheet (step 2) following; the Comprehensive Plan Matrix (step 2); and the Financial Plan (step 3); the policy decision matrix (step5) and you’ll have your Capital Facilities Plan completed.
CTED provides some good examples of other jurisdictions’ capital facilities plans on our website. While these are more extensive than many small jurisdictions will choose to emulate, and it is not necessary to produce documents as complex as these, they portray how some jurisdictions have used the elements described above.
The expanded version of the template (see more information below in “Delving Deeper into the Template”), includes some examples of written sections of the plan. These were taken from the City of Olympia's Capital Facility Plan and are used here as illustrations only:
Delving Deeper into the Tool
Entire CD Download (85MB)
Delving Deeper
The planning steps and templates described in detail here are just the beginning. For the more adventurous user, those with advanced Excel skills, the Capital Facility Planning Tool offers many more opportunities. There are many more tools available within the complete set than can be described on this web site. Those who can explore the complete set of documents on their own will be amazed at the possibilities. Click here for a list of the main project files and how they function.
To explore the full extent of what the Tool offers, follow these steps.
1. Install the CFP Tools and Templates folder on your computer.
a. Click here and choose save.
b. Save it to your Desktop
c. Extract the files: Right-click on "CFPtemplate.zip" that you just downloaded , select "Extract All" (the templates are stored in a .zip folder).
d. When prompted, click "Browse" and save the extracted contents on to your “C” drive. You will then have a folder called “CFP Tools and Templates” available off-line.
Note: Normally, placing documents on the “C” drive is not advised. In this case, the links among the templates were designed for any user and were set up in the most generic method.
2. Begin exploring.
a. Open the CFP Tools and Templates folder on your “C” drive. You will see that there are 7 sub-folders contained therein. The easiest way to begin identifying opportunities within the set of templates is to next open the folder called “CFP Process and Initial Files”.
b. Within the folder “CFP Process and Initial Files”, you will see four documents. Click on the document labeled “Table of Files” to open it. You will then see an outline of the most commonly used templates.
Table of Files is a guide map to easily access those commonly used files (many of which you’ve already seen if you followed the initial instructions on this site). Clicking on any of the titles will open that document for you.
3. Navigation aides.
a. Getting familiar with the many options contained within the Tool may seem intimidating, but a simple plan of exploring for 10-15 minutes a day can lead to in-depth familiarity with the templates and the opportunity to save a great deal of time when crafting your CFP. We invite, even suggest, you to explore in this way to make full use of the opportunities available in this Tool.
b. To be sure that the master documents are not endangered by your exploration, save a document you would like to experiment with as “(original file name)-test” and play to your heart’s content.
c. Note that the tool bar set up within the Excel templates (of which the Table of Files is one) contains a left and a right arrow (see the second row at the top of the document). These arrows can be used to go back and forth between Table of Files and other documents.
d. The top left cell in most of the templates is a link to instructions for using the form. Click on the instructions to get to an image of the template with details for how to use the cells. Use the left arrow to return to the document or close the document by clicking the “x” in the right hand top tool bar on the document. Experienced Excel users know that clicking the “x” above that one, in red, will close Excel entirely.
e. Note that green cells are usually the ones where the user enters data. The white cells are usually the ones that contain “fixed” information, such as formulas.
f. Watch for tabs at the bottom of the Excel documents. In many of the worksheets, the tabs reflect an opportunity to enter data in the first tab, an opportunity to adjust baseline worksheet background data in the second tab, and sometimes a calculation total on the third tab. It is helpful to get acquainted with the tabs before manipulating the data, to be sure that when you’re inserting or deleting information from certain cells, you’re not deleting the formulas that make the worksheet operate properly.
g. Note that some of the worksheets have columns headed by cells with “down arrows”. These can be used to sort for characteristics of interest (e.g., only for items of concern to small jurisdictions; only for items related to a certain category; etc.)
h. To explore documents not included on the Table of Files, it is recommended that you systematically open each folder, then open each document contained within the folder, to see what is available. Among the many templates, you will find:
• A project cost estimating worksheet
• Construction and close out task list
• A project scoping task list
• Permit planning and costing worksheet
• Public involvement planning and costing worksheet and ideas
• Detailed project work plans for many types of projects
• Text templates for writing the narrative of your Capital Facilities Plan
• A filing system for Plan documents
• Links to many other resources
…. and much more
Note: Some of the cost worksheets use unit cost estimates that are now several years out of date. Don’t let that deter you from exploring the worksheets. For order of magnitude estimating, the results generated by the worksheets are often still valid. And, once familiar with how the templates are set up, you can update the costs to meet your own needs.
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