These studies also may be used as the basis for a special check on the forecasts contained in the Plan Update. Such new data does not usually mean that a Plan must be entirely reformulated. In most cases, new forecasts can be inserted to adjust trends either upward or downward, while holding to the main orientation of the Plan. The purpose of this advanced planning framework is to make it possible to retain the present plan, with major or minor adjustments, over a period of several decades. As time goes on, and especially as transitions from historical patterns of land-use give way to new ones, the pattern of places throughout the County may be expected to change.
New places take on meaning to residents, and some older places come to be known by new names.
As such, there should be a provision for modifying the Plan to take into account these new patterns. For rural places, this kind of modification amounts to nothing more than changing names on maps and on lists of associations for participatory purposes. For the emerging centers in the system of places, however, more complex procedures need to be foreseen. As mentioned above, the Plan Update is based only upon the present array of cities and towns, and accordingly only those centers actually discussed herein. To assure that all of this is done in an orderly manner.