This is an interesting concern, not just for people like me in the planning profession, but for life in general. How do you look into a distant and unknowable future and try to anticipate how things will shape up? What logical steps can you take now to help form that future? What surprises should you prepare for? (How can it be a surprise if you're prepared for it?) How do you react/adapt as circumstances change? And as you move into the future, how do you find a balance between sacrificing present needs in order to preserve a future safety net? Which needs trump, in other words - the needs of the present or the needs of the future?
When it comes to development, there is a dance that is done between the needs, goals, and investment-backed expectations of return on the part of developers, and the oftentimes opposing needs, goals, and community-character-preserving expectations of the community? Property rights are a real thing, and the question becomes - whose rights trump? The property rights of a developer, or the average citizen?
I don't have a definitive answer. I view it as my goal to be a facilitator for both sides. I want to foster good, clear lines of communication in order to ensure that everyone at least has a chance to be heard. Appropriate laws, general plan guidelines, and good policies make for positive working relationships that are consistent and predictable. The fun (I know, I may be a bit sadistic that I think it's fun) lies in when the unpredictable becomes the reality, in dealing with the various and sundry as it appears, trying to make things happen in the best, easiest, and most efficient way possible.
If I have to come down on a particular side, however, my view is ever towards making accommodation for the average citizen. Often, the developer is a known quantity with lots of money, lots of experience in front of commissions and councils, and one who is therefore very familiar with the processes. The average citizen is not. And yet, their investment is not merely in property, but in the community in general. They want the community to succeed because they live here, their families are here, and they have a social network that contributes to the collective history and spirit of the community, which is in fact what a community is.
Change in a community is inevitable. The goal for planners should ever be to help guide the changes in positive directions, taking into account the disparate views and concerns to mitigate the potential negative impacts of change. It's a dynamic, exciting thing to contemplate.
