It doesn’t matter how well thought out a plan is if it just sits on a shelf gathering dust once it’s approved.

That’s why Councilwoman Wendy McCain’s and Councilman Maurice Cashman’s questions about who is in charge of implementing Warren’s newly approved comprehensive plan are so important.

In our view, the questions weren’t particularly well answered.

It’s easy to say the City Council will lead a coordinated effort between the city Planning Commission, the business community and city residents to implement the plan, as Mayor Dave Wortman said last week.

It’s hard to put that amorphous language into action as the shine wears off the new plan. New projects and problems will come up that take up Planning Commission members’ time. Budgets and pressing problems will grab council members’ attentions. The business community and city residents have their own day-to-day issues to worry about. That’s life, and it’s something the council must acknowledge and deal with.

Wortman is right about who needs to be involved. A group that includes city officials, the council, the community and businesses needs to be involved to lead the implementation effort. In our opinion, the city needs to create a small group of those who are most invested in the comprehensive plan to lead implementation. The group should answer to the Planning Commission and, ultimately, the council but be given the freedom and support to find the outside funding necessary to begin implementing the plan’s recommendations. Having a group dedicated solely to the comprehensive plan is especially necessary as the low-hanging fruit in the comprehensive plan is picked. Major change and improvement needs the focus that an implementation group can give.

In our opinion, without a dedicated effort it’s entirely possible the comprehensive plan becomes a comprehensive waste of everyone’s time.