Why Long-Range Planning Is Hard — And Why Blaming People Years Later Misses the Reality
During my short time on City Council, I’ve noticed a pattern: when long-range plans evolve or costs shift—as they inevitably do—some residents immediately want to pin the blame on staff or on previous councils. I’ve seen people treat 10-, 20-, or 30-year plan projections as if they were guarantees carved in stone, and when reality changes, the instinct is to assume someone must have done something wrong. But that’s simply not how real-world planning works.
Let’s be honest: long-range infrastructure planning is complex and tough. Cities as opposed to businesses, don’t plan in two, three or five-year chunks. They plan in decades — typically longer than any council term, staff tenure, or political moment. And when you’re planning 10, 20, even 30 years out, the world around us certainly doesn’t stay still. That’s not a flaw. That’s the nature of real-world project planning.
Big Projects Are Complicated and Always Moving
When a city plans for a major road upgrade, a new sewer/water system, or a long-range transportation corridor, we’re talking about multimillion-dollar decisions that take years to design, fund, approve, and build. Along the way:
Construction costs will inflate
Federal or state rules change
Materials availability can become scarce
Supply Chains can be interrupted
Technology evolves
Funding opportunities appear—or disappear
So even the best, smartest, most forward-thinking plans need continuous tuning. A plan written in 2010 shouldn’t look the same by 2025. If it does, that’s the problem.
A plan written in 2010 shouldn’t look the same by 2025. If it does, that’s the problem.
Plans Are Supposed to Evolve
Good planning isn’t about locking the city into a rigid blueprint. It’s about giving us a direction—then adapting as circumstances change. Imagine building a house and insisting the 15-year-old cost estimate be the final word. No adjustments for materials, energy standards, market conditions, or your own evolving needs. It would be absurd.
Cities are no different. Wilsonville grows. Technology changes. Regulations shift. Residents expect more reliability, more sustainability, and more resilience than they did decades ago. A long-range plan that adapts is not evidence of failure—it’s evidence of stewardship.
Why Demanding “Perfect Execution” Years Later Isn’t Realistic
Some critics want to measure a 20 to 30-year plan against the exact wording or pricing from day one. They want to treat early prognostications as guarantees.
But that’s simply not how development/infrastructure planning works --
No city council can control global inflation;
No city engineer can predict building code changes a decade ahead;
No city staffer can foresee future environmental mandates;
No community can see 20-30 years into the economic future.
Holding/blaming today’s city staff—or past councils—responsible for predicting the unpredictable isn’t accountability. It’s textbook hindsight and blame-game politics.
The Real Standard Is Responsible Adaptation, Not Rewriting History
A healthy, well-run city focuses on, and should take three actions as the city morphs/grows:
Updates plans as new realities emerge – which it does
Communicates clearly about changes – which it does
Keeps the long-term goal in sight: safety, reliability and sustainability – which it does
That’s what Wilsonville has done for decades. That’s why our water system is award-winning. That’s why our wastewater operations are among the best in the state. That’s why our roads, parks, and transit system are the envy of regional communities our size.
Countering the Blame Game
Consistently, voices in the “no plan / grievance” camp have protested by framing evolving plans as failures. They blame city staff for projections that didn’t hold decades into the future and fault past councils for not perfectly forecasting long-term costs. They treat normal, expected updates as evidence of mismanagement. Are our systems perfect, or are our plans flawless? Of course, they are not—there will always be gaps, issues, or adjustments along the way. But in my experience, whenever those gaps appear, we identify them, address them, and keep moving forward as any responsible city should.
But here’s the truth: It’s not mismanagement when a plan changes—it’s responsible governance.
Our City Staff aren’t fortune-tellers;
Our Councils aren’t prophets;
Long-term planning isn’t a straight line, and it never has been in any city.
Blaming the individuals who have kept Wilsonville strong, stable, and functioning at a high level doesn’t just ignore reality—it undermines trust in the very institutions that make this city work.
What Wilsonville Needs Now
We need to continue with (and strengthen) the community conversation grounded in the development and infrastructure planning process — not armchair quarterbacking, wishful thinking or political retrofitting. We need to:
Value experience and expertise.
Recognize that adaptation is a sign of competence.
Understand that plans evolve because reality evolves.
Reject narratives that hold people accountable for what no one can control.
Bottom Line: Long-range planning is hard because the world continually changes. Plans evolve because cities evolve. And Wilsonville succeeds because we adapt—not because we cling to outdated assumptions or look back to blame. So, when critics point fingers at staff or past councils because a 2010 plan/estimate doesn’t match a 2026 reality, we should be clear that:
We move forward by adjusting to new realities—not by pointing fingers at the people who couldn’t predict them.
I end this part with a quote from one of my favorite people in history:
Dwight D. Eisenhower
“Plans are worthless, but Planning is everything.”
Eisenhower emphasized that the act of planning builds awareness, real-time flexibility, and preparedness—even though the exact plan may fail/change as soon as conditions change.
Final thought
In my opinion, Wilsonville’s big-picture strength has always been its willingness to think/plan forward and adjust as needed. That’s how we keep growth structured & predictable, services reliable, and our community a place people are proud to call home.
As always, I welcome the opportunity to discuss this — or any other issues —with you. You can reach me at scull@wilsonvilleoregon.gov or 971-804-0613.