Plan Well Live Well
A Model for Protecting Your Local Food Supply, Your Ag Economies and Rural Character
The Plan Well Live Well Blueprint:
1. Your Idaho Identity
What is important to your city or county? Here’s some steps to find your Idaho Identity:
• Survey the community to find out what is important to its citizens
• Study your economy. What keeps people working and thriving? What gets your community through an economic downturn?
• Be clear about what increases taxes and what will keep taxes in check.
• Define what is important and how the community, and it’s public servants and representatives will protect these essential characteristics and/or vital economies.
2. Stop Fragmenting the agricultural economy if it’s important to your community
Comprehensive plans and zoning, and zoning ordinances, are a part of every city and county and they have been for centuries. It means you can’t build a gas station in a residential neighborhood or a neighborhood in the middle of an agricultural economy. Zoning protects people’s property rights and lessens nuance law suits. Many farmers and ranchers in Idaho struggle to farm between the cracks of suburban housing and traffic. Planning can address this. A lack of planning can be reckless on several levels and lead to costly mistakes, including the destruction of an economy a community has relied upon for decades. Planning is essential for everyone, on many levels for successful living, including cities and counties.
3. Keep Talking and Protecting the Vision
Talk to your neighbor, your political representatives and your local government. Share ideas respectfully. Protect what is important to you.
Protect good laws that protect you:
Protect transparency at every step of government. (Click here to learn more about transparency)
Make sure laws protect people and their communities by following Idaho’s Local Land Use Planning Laws. (Click here to learn more)