I’m 141 pages in to the new Development Plan, with about 220 to go. For the past two days I have been bunkered down in my apartment and tomorrow will be day 3. Fun.

The new development plan (2011-2017) is the most significant document that the Council will adopt over the next five years, the most significant thing we will do as Councillors. It’s a two-year process more or less and we’re approaching end of year 1, when the first draft is to be put on public display.

We recently received the ‘proposed’ first draft, and this coming Friday we will submit motions amending this proposed draft. These motions will then be debated one by one in full Council a week later before the document is finalised as a first draft and goes out to the city for its feedback (this will take about 8 weeks). It then comes back to us, and then more reports from the manager, motions, amendments, debates etc.

While the process might sound convoluted, each step is integral to determining the final shape of the plan when it is adopted by the Council and comes in to force in 2011.

So you have to be on the ball from the beginning. Much time was spent over the summer months giving guidance to the executive as to how we wanted this document to look, what it was to include. Now we have it. And every page must be read in detail to ensure that the contents conform with our vision for the City.

We get one shot. And as it could quite possibly be the most important contribution I will make to public life, I’m determined to get it right.

 …that said, a beer would be good…