Remember the first time you got handed the car keys and had a little cash in your pocket? Felt pretty grown up, didn't you? How about when you first turned 18 and all of a sudden you're able to make your own decisions, except whether or not to buy a beer? At 21, though, even the choice of beverages becomes your own, so that must be what grown up is, right?
That's been one of the flaws in local growth planning, one of the biggest reasons we're stuck in the state's longest commute on decaying roads. It's always a plan to get us the next few years. It's time to start planning from a different perspective, not like parents absolved of legal responsibility for what happens after an 18th birthday party.
We need to start thinking of the grown-up Clay County more like the happily-married retiree with a back door less than a hundred yards from the pond bordering the eighth fairway. Someone proud of an accomplished career that provided a financially-secure retirement. Someone who's been healthy, happy and productive along the way to their well-earned lifestyle.
At the recent meeting of the County Commission, the possibility of a 20-year traffic plan was being discussed when the conversation turned to the potential plan's time frame. Some Commissioners pointed out that any plan longer than 10, or even 5, years is just a dream, citing the myriad of uncontrollable influences, like the economy and that collection of folks we call representatives in Tallahassee.
Commissioner Harold Rutledge, though, offered a different perspective, suggesting that the short-term plans can't be effective if there isn't a longer-term goal. He's right. Harold suggested looking ahead as far as 100 years, even as some other Commissioners' faces showed they feel it's a waste of time.
Can we plan specific details of a truly grown-up Clay County of a century from now? No, those variables that threaten even shortest-term government plans will increase exponentially over a century. But our efforts to reach a consensus, to reach a vision that provides a plan for the future, can't continue to center on just reaching those short-term goals mandated by the political and financial realities of the government planning process.
We have to look at our county as a mature, experienced and wise grown-up. Then we'll know which short-term plans will help us get there.
What do we want Clay County to be when it's grown up? Before we can answer that question, let's figure out what kind of grown-up - the 18-year-old, the 21-year-old, or that successful retiree - we're talking about.
Michael S. Mann
michaelsmann@comcast.net [1]