The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Planning Department is a joint City/County Planning Department that advises the City Council and Board of County Commissioners on land use, design plans, zoning, land development, transportation/ transit, economic development, public facilities, and other general planning matters. Through public processes over the years, the Department had amassed dozens of adopted small area plans and hundreds of plan recommendations by 2005, but lacked funding and a comprehensive means to achieve implementation on the ground. Planning Director Debra Campbell asked the philosophical question; “Why is an Area Plan done, if we cannot implement it?