Write a Comprehensive Plan In-House

In today's economy, money is tight. Figuring out how to do good planning work for less money, without compromising quality, is critical as planning budgets are reduced. This mid-size city completed a two-year comprehensive plan update, under budget, by completing the majority of the process in-house. This presentation offers a detailed breakdown of how planners budgeted for this project, why and what they outsourced to consultants, and what they learned from doing so.

Leave with an understanding of relative costs for various types of work related to the plan (such as hiring a professional photographer or developing a visually appealing document), how to decide if this work can be completed in-house, and why this locality believes the majority of the work can, and should, be handled locally. This presentation is of primary interest to those who have multiple planners on staff; it is less applicable to small towns where a single planner is responsible for the vast majority of planning and development work.