Master Plans Are Wish Lists

Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "J' Accuse":

If one were to take a tractor & mower onto the area below the water tower and simply cut the growth, there would be all kinds of good stuff for mulch. It was crop land. As far as I know, Aurora already owns the land. Use what we have. You could plant plenty of saplings up there. Clearing the land once a year would be good and the planting need not interfere with all the action up there. There even is a deserted apple orchard - if the trees are dead, clear them and use the lumber. Aurora needs to look at what it has instead of what it has on its wish list.

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The Region is responsible for our supply of water. The water tower property belongs to the Region and if an abandoned apple orchard is part of the parcel it owns that too.
The Hydro building and yard belongs to the town and we need it. But we leased it away to the federal government for ten years without a cancellation clause.. 
Let me tell you about wish lists.
The administration  busies itself constantly retaining consultants to create  plans for this and that and the next thing.
We have  Master Plans  for parks and recreation ,for Environment and  for Trails. 
We are doing one one now to create a second  heritage district at the request of Susan Morton Leonard 
Newmarket is doing,  or talking about doing, a culture  master plan
and some in Aurora think that's a simply marvelous idea,darling.
We have the Promenade Plan to guide  future design of the downtown core.It's not our property or our investment  but we intend to dictate how it's done anyway
We had a Strategic Plan. It needed a five year review. But staff recommended a completely new plan for  twenty years instead of five.
So we are doing that  at a cost of $80,000. 
How a plan is put together is as follows. Staff set up terms of reference and call for proposals.The winning consultant  sets up meetings and workshops to encourage people to  "envision" what they would like in the future in the area of the study.
A handful of people, usually the same handful, earnestly participate.stretch their imaginations and envision what would be great to see. 
None of  which  has anything  to do with financial feasibility, available resources or the state of the economy.The essential feature is  "vision".We hear a lot about vision.
The current  Aurora visioning statement  is:
"Where businesses thrive and neighbors care" It's part of whatwe got for the $80.000
I know it's easy to mock.  I  am probably the only Councillor who is
less than impressed. 
It doesn't matter much anyway.. 
The others  really believe in the process.
The new plan sets" strategy "for the next twenty years.
The Region is much bolder. They have opted for a fifty year crystal ball. They are very sure of their continued existence.
At the last environmental advisory committee meeting, members noted agendas only take only twenty minutes. There's a feeling they have  nothing meaningful to do.
It's because there is nothing left to do.
A master environmental plan is in place.  All that's left  is for staff to follow the plan and edge Council along in the right direction.
Budgets  and programs are based on the plans.Yes indeed. And why not ? Everything possible is in "The Plan" and pre-approved by Council. .
The tiniest  aspect of  our future needs  have been planned well beyond the term of  council..There ain't much left for Council to deliberate either. 
Only a Master plan for Culture remains to be handed down from the hands of the masters to the populace.
Like capital forecasts, where we tuck away cockamamie schemes like snow melt treatment facilities costing a cool million to be done in stages.
Think of that, a million bucks to "treat" a fraction of the melting snow that falls in the winter.  $270,000? has already been spent on the design. 
The strategy for the next twenty years has been  etched in stone as the will of the people.
Like Moses' tablets of the ten commandments.
These are the times we live in.
So  much better than the past when we would consider carefully what we  needed, could afford, where the funds could come from or how great would be the  burden on homeowners and businesses.. 
We didn't think of  education and income of the highest wage earners as a guide to how much we could increase the load.
We struck a budget on the basis of those on the opposite end of the scale.
We did the most with the least in olden times,when the treasurer kept Councils grounded  and Councillors made the  decisions and 
we moved forward just the same.