Any potential change requires the coordination of a number of levels of government: local, state, and national. There are also the private interests of individual citizens to consider. Economic considerations may be a limiting factor, but votes are the key enabling device. All of the Future Alternatives must be weighed against their ability to be implemented given the various authorities with jurisdiction in the area; or they must include an heroic assumption --the ability to change the politics and organization of planning decision making in Monroe County. Can any alternative future be successfuly implemented while relying upon the current processes of decentralized decision making?
The Plan-Trend and Build-Out presume and require no reorganization or change in the decision-making process. However, as the population increases, the County as a whole will inevitably play a larger role, albeit increasingly in crisis management.
The Township requires no redefinition of authority, but does demand a yet-to-be-seen degree of coordination between Townships and Boroughs.
The Southern does require a shift from Township scale planning to county scale planning. Another option would be to split the County into two planning zones, north and south. However, there would have to be considerable coordination between them, especially if the Transfer of Development Rights Program were to be implemented.
Monroe County Courthouse.
The Spine also requires a change from Township scale planning to County scale planning. Shifting the majority of new development would also change existing land values, focusing political interests to the central region of the County.
The Park would require moving most planning authority from the Townships to the County. It is also likely that the County scale of governance and finance is not sufficiently broad enough to fully realize the Park Alternative and that a larger Regional Compact would need to be created.