Government at all levels involves a lot of planning. In the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, unadvertised municipal plans were kept in locked basements that were only open to the public a few hours a month. Fortunately in the age of the internet, plans are easier to find. Just look at Today’s State Agency Database Highlight:
- Plans Library- From the website, “The Library contains a wide assortment of plans submitted to the Division of Community & Regional Affairs (DCRA) by communities, agencies and contractors. The database contains Community Plans, Comprehensive Plans, Economic Development Plans, and Strategic Plans among many more general and project related plans (such as Water Waste Plans, Relocation Plans etc).”
Aside from being worthwhile documents in themselves (check out a few if you don’t believe me), plans are a valuable source of local history. Communities that have never had their local history set down in book form often have several pages worth of local history in plans. There are also often descriptions of current local conditions and lists of leading people and organizations in the community. Plans are useful to the historian and sociologist as well as to the community planner. Go check them out.
The Alaska page of State Agency Databases Across the Fifty States is maintained by Sheri Somerville.
