Why Master Plan?

"Camp Design: Master Planning Basics" Series

Master planning, the concept of structuring comprehensively and long-term, is typically associated with urban development.  You may not have considered a master plan necessary for your camp – perhaps your camp is already quite successful, or small enough that future steps seem simple. 

What is a camp, though, if not a small city?  People live, eat, work, and play at a camp.  They require the same basic necessities at camp as they do at home: somewhere to sleep, eat, and interact with others.  Fulfilling these needs efficiently requires a bit of thought and direction.  If your camp is brand-new, creating a guide for the future is essential.  If your camp has been in existence for years, a master plan can help prevent the band-aid approach to solving problems, and it will enable you to be proactive in taking control of the future.  It’s an investment in your camp’s future.

Planning the camp’s future necessitates the involvement of the entire camp community – campers, staff, administrators, donors, and officials.  This variety of voices ensures that the complexity of issues facing the camp is fully understood, and it also ensures that there will be a multitude of creative solutions proposed.  Engaging the whole community in planning unlocks the creative spirit of the camp, enables dreaming in a safe direction, and pushes boundaries in a guided, practical way.  Planning generates solutions.

The planning process also tends to build ownership.  People are eager to get involved and have their opinions heard, which means that to some extent, they have already taken ownership of the camp.  They care about the camp’s future.  The planning process encourages this sense of ownership to expand, as there’s potential for people to see their ideas come to life.  Planning builds support.

In 1983, Greg Copeland (our lead landscape architect and planner here at Domokur Architects) developed the first master plan for Camp Burgess, a YMCA camp in Massachusetts.  (See top-right.)  Over the next twenty-five years, Camp Burgess utilized the plan to fill out their facilities – including year-round housing, a new family camp, an activity lodge, and a beautiful dining hall.  Greg returned twice, once in 1999 (center-right) and again in 2006 (below), to help them refine the master plan to accommodate the camp’s changes throughout the years.  Camp Burgess invested in a long-term plan for growth and reaped the benefits.

A master plan is a logical road map for implementation of operational, program and physical development goals.  The planning documents are an ideal resource for generating funding and attracting publicity.  The process forces you to define exactly what your camp is all about and where you want to go.  And the community involvement encourages a strong sense of ownership.  Overall, investment in a master plan highlights problems – both current and anticipated – and presents tangible, achievable solutions to make the most of your camp’s future.

Our next entry in this series will explain the basic steps of the planning process using the Five Keys. 

Note: This series is based on Greg Copeland’s book “Camp Design: Master Planning Basics”, which is available for purchase here.  Greg leads Domokur Architects’ Planning and Landscape Architecture team with over 40 years of professional and planning experience.