Get the Right Results from Your "Silent Planners" They’re sending signals that can affect your community’s growth. Be sure the signals are what you want. | ||
| Your “Silent Salesperson”--the website, brochure, or video used to promote growth--can quietly turn developers or investors on to the opportunities in your community, business area, or neighborhood.
But your land use controls and permit approvals, uncertainties, and delays may unnecessarily turn them off. And you may never know it happened. Just as each of your town’s marketing pieces quietly serves as your Silent Salesperson, your zoning, subdivision, sign, design review, landmark, and other codes act as your Silent Planners. They affect growth and job creation, but not always in the way you want. Your Codes Send a Signal Silent Planners send a strong and
sometimes inac- |
An expert can tell a lot about what may face builders or property owners by analyzing these documents. Are they sending the signal you want to send?
Often they were adopted by former officials at the urging of people no longer around. Today’s leaders may not know what they say. Many may not agree with the old rules. But these codes operate independently of what your planning commission, zoning board, or city council do. And there may be little you can do to provide relief. It’s Good Management So if you want sales, jobs, or taxes, it can be good to do a Silent Planner Performance Review (SPPR). Managers do performance reviews of staff because reviewing workers is good management. If you want |
to know how well your codes are doing today, include Silent Planners in your performance reviews.
Answers You Need Are your Silent Planner provisions: More restrictive than they need to be? Are they dependent on subjective interpretation? Do they create work by requiring too many variances? Are they more suited for a different kind of place? Do they boost costs with few benefits? Do they need legal review? Do they foster win-win outcomes? For more on SPPR, please click here. |