What is a comprehensive masterplan?

A masterplan is a guide the future development of a particular area. A comprehensive masterplan can help shape not only the physical development of a community, but also its social, cultural, economic and political future as well. Masterplans articulate both short-term and long-term goals of a community, providing a vision for the next 20 to 25 years.

As a process, a masterplan works to bring a community together to determine its shared values and its shared vision for its future. Town meetings are held and surveys conducted to solicit public input into the plan. Goals are discussed, and objectives are articulated to allow these goals to be accomplished. Community assets are identified which may help achieve these goals, and liabilities are identified which may hinder these goals. The community will then vote to adopt the plan, which is then sent to the county for adoption. Regional, state and federal officials will also review the masterplan, though they will neither adopt nor reject its outcomes.

As a product, a masterplan provides an economic tool to recruit new business and investment in the community, and to strengthen existing businesses; a political tool to encourage civic improvements and ensure appropriate municipal services; and a legal tool to give the community a greater voice in outside decision-making processes which affect their town. Masterplans are intended to be flexible, 'living documents,' which can be changed and amended over time to respond to the changing values of a community.

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Sometimes it can be difficult to imagine how different the world will be twenty-five years from now.
As a comparison, we can think about how different San Pierre was twenty-five years ago. Twenty-five years ago:

• Ronald Reagan was beginning his first term as President
• The Soviet Union was still an "evil empire" and the Berlin Wall still stood between East and West Germany
• Bill Clinton was beginning his second term as Governor of Arkansas
• Evan Bayh was in law school at the University of Virginia
• unemployment in the united States was 9.7%; today unemployment is 4.8%
• median income in the United States was $20,171; today the median income is $48,201
• gas = $1.30 / gallon; today = $3.25 / gallon
• milk = $2.24 / gallon; today = $3.80 / gallon
• eggs = 84¢ / dozen; today = $1.35 / dozen
• 1st class stamp = 20¢; today = 41¢
• the Dow Jones Index surpasses the 1,000 mark; today the DJI is somewhere between 12,000 and 14,000
• IBM unveils the first personal computer
• IBM teams up with Harvard drop-out Bill Gates to begin work on Microsoft Windows
• the Internet was still a military tool and not available to the public
• there was no e-mail, eBay, e-servers or e-trade
• ATMs have just been invented in Europe but were not yet common in the US
• cable TV just becoming available
• satellite dishes still ten years away
• Sony releases the Walkman portable music player
• the Indiana Pacers had their first ever winning season in the NBA
• Reggie Miller was a baseball star entering his junior year at Riverside Polytechnic High School in Southern California
• Steve Alford and Keith Smart were the big names on campus in Bloomington
• Gerry Faust takes over for Dan Devine as football coach at Notre Dame
• the Colts still have two seasons to play in Baltimore
• Peyton Manning enters the first grade at a Louisiana Parish school
• the first minivans are introduced - the Dodge Caravan and the Plymouth Voyager
• I-65 (connecting Mobile, Alabama to Gary, Indiana) had just been completed (1978)
• the Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Kentucky was the only automaker on I-65's "Auto Alley"
  (now Saturn, Subaru, Hyundai, Cadillac and Corvette all have plants on I-65)

© 2008 The Institute for Small Town Studies