Community Area Planning Book 2000

Part 1, Section VI: It Is Not Fail Safe

1. There are no perfect solutions and we cannot have everything. No matter how well designed the process is, it cannot succeed unless everyone involved understands that there are no perfect solutions, and we cannot have everything. This involves the recognition of some limiting factors that must be recognized as part of the CAP initiative. These include:

   • recognition of property rights

   • recognition of already established plans and programs
   • recognition of limited funding sources
   • recognition of operational limitations
     
2. The CAP initiative will not be successful without the endorsement and interaction of all City departments, boards, the community, and most importantly, the City Commission. Once the collaborative stage is complete and the CAP plans begin to undergo scrutiny by the City Commission and other City Board, its success will be based on the endorsement of all city departments, city staff, the community, and most importantly, the City Commission. Therefore, it is imperative that the City as a whole fully understands and endorses the CAP initiative before it begins and participates as part of the CAP.
   
3. The CAP will not work without implementation strategies. Not all recommendations stand an equal chance of being implemented, and the time and effort of those involved does not guarantee that it will be implemented. That is why the implementation strategies as well as benchmarking procedures to measure ther performance of the initiative are crucial to the success of each CAP.
   
   Some basic principles to be used to ensure that strategy implementation is successful are:
   

   • all strategies and work products equate to fulfilling the CAP goals.
   • simple strategies will come before more complex strategies - starting simple will provide the early success upon which more difficult tasks can be based.
   • critical issues take priority over less critical issues - 80% results will come from 20% of the problems. The most critical issues (the 20%) are those which shape the perceptions about the quality of life of a community.
     
4. Life cycle effects -- from problem identification to enactment, then to approval by the City Commission, then to successful implementation. New outlooks both on the Commission as well as in the community may influence the effectiveness of the end product. That is why the CAP must be a continual process. It must be continuously revisited to ensure that it is still adequate, appropriate, and capable of meeting the community's needs. By being a continual process - we empower the citizens to shape their community's future.