During the charrette workshop, numerous Attica residents,
businesspeople, and leaders worked with volunteer architecture,
landscape architecture, and urban planning students and faculty to
forge a vision of Attica for the years to come. This
process helped to engage numerous groups of people in Attica and
sought to develop a consensus toward which the entire community
would work. A summary of the charrette findings are shown to
the right, using a "SWOT" analysis, or Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Numerous sketches
and drawings were also produced during the charrette by the
students, some of which are included in the comprehensive plan
portion of this website.
Why
do we need a Comprehensive Plan?
In
Indiana, the Comprehensive Plan is a required prerequisite to the
zoning process and is outlined by the Indiana Code 36-7-4-500
series. By statute, the plan commission must prepare the
plan, and the legislative body must adopt it. The plan is to
guide all future land use and zoning decisions, and is often used
by the Courts to either uphold a planning or zoning decision
supported by the plan, or to strike down a decision contrary to
the plan.
There are, however, many more
reasons for a community such as Attica to plan for its future
beyond those required by law. First off, in our world change
is inevitable, whether you want it or not. There is a story
of people in a small town in Indiana that wanted nothing to do
with planning. They didn't want anything to change.
They were then asked where their grocery store was. It went
out of business five years ago. Hardware store? It
left a few years ago. The bakery outlet? Yep...it too
had left. By refusing to take the future of their community
into their own hands, they left those decisions to someone else.
Another reason to plan is that it
saves money...tax money. Brushing your teeth every day is a
whole lot cheaper than paying for those cavity fillings, and
planning for growth before it happens is much cheaper than having
to respond to it after the fact. Planning for new roads,
infrastructure, and schools can allow construction or fundraising
in phases, rather than all at once.
Planning can also protect natural
resources, a vital component of Attica's charm. It doesn't
say anywhere that you can't pave over that forest or that septic
systems that are bound to fail can't be placed all around
town. It takes community consensus to help make those
decisions.
And finally, good planning works to
enhance the quality of life for everyone. Attica's historic
downtown and surround neighborhoods as well as the Wabash River
and surround natural areas are all vulnerable resources.
They are the very things that help make Attica such a great place
to live...but without protection and enhancement, these things can
go the way they have went in so many other small towns. This
comprehensive plan seeks to preserve and enhance Attica's charm
for years to come.
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STRENGTHS |
