In June 2007, Burleigh County hired SRF Consulting (SRF) to update the Burleigh County Comprehensive Plan.  The contract would pay SRF almost $100,000.  Planners, such as those at SRF, use a “rational planning model” to write long-range plans.  Rational planning identifies problems, establishes criteria to evaluate alternatives, creates alternatives, and chooses one. 

SRF, the private consulting firm hired to update the Burleigh County comprehensive land-use plan, says its goal is to “reduce sprawl.” But why, in a state that is 99 percent rural, has sprawl become such an overriding problem?

The planners say it costs more to provide infrastructure and services to far-flung developments. Yet they admit they have no evidence this is true in Burleigh County. UPS, FedEx, electricity, and telephone companies manage to cover their costs serving low-density developments. Burleigh County should also be able to do so.

The planning profession uses a “rational planning model” to address issues like this one. Rational planners identify goals, develop alternative ways of achieving those goals, and estimate the benefits and costs of each alternative. Only then do they put together a plan that attempts to achieve the greatest benefits at the least cost.

In early September, the North Dakota Policy Council released a report detailing the dangerous agenda that "professional" city planners are promoting entitled "smart growt," a global land grab scheme aimed at increasing land regulations and decreasing the number of privately held acres of land.

There is a new North Dakota-based organization that is helping the fight against government takeover of private property, the North Dakota Policy Council (NDPC). The NDPC is a non-profit educational corporation dedicated to free-markets and private property.