What Kind of Community
Plan Would Suit your Council?
There are some requirements for community
plans – they must cover at least a ten year timeframe,
must be aspirational, and must include actions for implementation.
However, Councils have flexibility in how they develop plans
and how plans are structured.
There are three main types of community
plans ranging in scale and focus (Table 1).
Table 1.
Three General Types of Community Plan
(adapted from Local Government Professionals Corporate Planner’s
Network, 2008)
| Type of Plan |
Features |
Scope |
Mostly Suits |
| Community Visioning |
High level vision,
Strategies based on broad themes such as environment,
youth or arts,
Broad comprehensive engagement often with formal working
groups, and major community workshops. |
Long term, often beyond ten
years,
Whole of Council area,
Relatively high resources requirement |
Councils with large populations
and relatively uniform communities |
| Comprehensive Community Planning |
High level vision,
Comprehensive engagement often with a combination of
themes and place-based strategies, engagement often
with workshops and meetings using existing networks
and organisations. |
Ten year timeframe,
Whole of Council area,
Moderate resources required |
Councils in mostly peri-urban or regional areas with
sufficient population to have broad themes across the
Council area |
| Place-Based Community Planning |
High level vision,
Engagement of different towns and districts, often meetings
using existing networks and organisations. |
Ten year timeframe,
Whole of Council area but focused on the vision and
priorities of geographic communities. |
Councils in rural areas where people relate mostly
to specific towns or districts. Population may not be
sufficient to have strategies on specific themes across
the Council area. |
A community plan can be a mix of the above
and can be a combination of themes or topics, such as seniors,
youth, community services etc. and place-based approaches
such as visions and strategies for particular towns and
districts. It is important to focus on the community people
relate to. Few people connect with a whole Council area
but they are often very interested in discussing issues
involving their community of interest or community of place.
Topics
covered in community planning are often chosen from the
following list:
- Infrastructure and Facilities
- Children and Families
- Young People
- Seniors
- Community Services
- Community Safety
- People with Disabilities
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander People
- Culturally and Linguistically
Diverse (CALD) People
- Education and Training
- Business and Employment
- Primary industry
- Sport and Recreation
- Arts, Culture and Heritage
- Health and Well-Being
- Environment
The type of plan that would
suit your Council, and the extent of engagement required
is guided by:
- Size of budget,
- Size of population,
- Complexity of issues,
- Extent of representative groups,
- Local presence of community
services,
- Strength and cohesion of specific
communities,
- Willingness to engage,
- Level of “engagement fatigue”,
- Level of controversy or conflict,
- Council commitment to the process.
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