WHAT'S INVOLVED IN DEVELOPING A PLAN

Before you start

1. Get copies of these documents

(if they exist for your jurisdiction) to use for reference.  Not every jurisdiction will have each of these.

1. Insurance policy covering your current facilities
2. Your city/county code definition (if any) defining “capital” (this is usually found in the financial policies section of the code)
3. Comprehensive Plan
4. Transportation Improvement Plan
5. Park Plan
6. Water System Plan
7. Sewer Plan
8. Stormwater Plan
9. Solid Waste Plan

2. Think about how you will organize the work of producing your plan. 

Here are some guidelines you can think about:

Preparing your Capital Facilities Plan involves a variety of people and a number of steps.  Drafting the initial Plan can take about six months. (Updates generally take less time). This means that developing a work plan for getting the project completed can be helpful.

Some principles to keep in mind for planning the work:

• Not all of this work is in sequence.  Many tasks can overlap
• People assigned to the Plan should work on it a little bit every day.  Setting aside a specific time each day gives momentum to the work and keeps it from being a time drain just before it’s due.

  Here are some things you can do to organize the work.

a. Designate a Lead staff for preparing the Plan

• The job of Lead is to coordinate all of the steps involved

b. Determine when the Plan must be completed.

• What is the target date to have your Council or Commission adopt the Plan?
• Does the Planning Commission need to review the Plan before it goes to the Council or Commission for adoption?

c. Count backward from that completion point to develop a schedule for the other steps.

d. Determine how much time each day or week will be spent on the Capital Facilities Plan and when the best time is to dedicate attention to the Plan.

Example:

The following is an example of a work plan for developing your Capital Facilities Plan.  This Capital Facilities Plan Work Plan can help you plan your jurisdiction’s timeline.

3. Organize your filing system

To optimize your efficiency, it is helpful to organize a filing system before you even start working.  Here is an outline for how to set up your electronic files in whatever directory you choose.

a. Set up a new folder: Capital Facilities Plan
b. Within that folder, set up the following hierarchy:

• Templates
  Use this folder for saving each template that you download, before you begin using the template. Save the templates with their original names.
• Project Files
  Use this folder to store your project-specific documents. Before using each template, save it to the project-specific file by renaming it according to the project.
  
  Set up sub-folders within this category according first to Comprehensive Plan category and then save templates according to project.

Example:
Water (Sub folder set up in advance)
Well # 2 - Project Description (project template saved when needed)
New Main - 1st Ave. - Project Description (project template saved when needed)

Parks (Sub folder set up in advance)

• Plan Documents
  Use this folder to save templates that will actually be incorporated into your final plan. Under this folder, you will set up sub-folders for summary templates such as the Comp Plan Policies Matrix and for each CFP chapter.

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