ABSTRACT
Any general plan that is to be officially adopted must be prepared, reviewed, and adopted in accordance with specific state laws and requirements. Many decisions made in a local community are strongly influenced by events that take place outside the community, and that are largely beyond the control of the local community. In some cases a local community can change the course or trends of events which originate outside of its borders; in other cases all the community can do is adapt to the inevitable. Identifying issues and discussing assumptions can often develop good intra-committee communication, which is important. The idea of the long-range general plan is to reach agreement on general concepts. It is usually a waste of time, however, to draft alternatives just for the sake of having alternatives. After that has been accomplished, the people can and should get on with more specific short-range planning.
