How do you get your arms around a beast with 130 heads? With long arms, carrots and a very big stick.

The long arms (of the law) belong to the state of Pennsylvania, which mandated in 1988 that every county governed by the Municipalities Planning Code must have a comprehensive plan -- that magical document that instantly synchronizes and synthesizes all the dreams and desires of its disparate cities, townships and boroughs.

As if.

Adopting a county plan to guide land use and economic development is a long, complex process -- the more municipalities, the more complicated it becomes, and Allegheny County has 130 municipalities, more than any other county in the state.

Even though it wasn't covered by the code, the county initiated a comprehensive plan process in 1994. Then, with a new board of county commissioners came the 20 percent county tax cut and, in 1996, the elimination of the planning department and a freeze of the county's Geographic Information System. The comprehensive plan was shelved.

Meanwhile, despite zero population growth, development in Pennsylvania continued to swallow up farmland and other greenfield sites at an alarming rate, second only to Wyoming. State officials had two choices -- get a handle on it or adopt a new slogan: Honk if you love asphalt.

In 2000, influenced by anti-sprawl advocate Tom Hylton and other voices, Gov. Tom Ridge created the big stick, mandating that county plans be updated every 10 years and that the plans be consistent with those of municipalities. It also created the Land Use Planning and Technical Assistance Program to provide some of the funding.

On the eighth floor of the Regional Enterprise Tower, in the county economic development office, assistant planning director Lynn Heckman and planning manager Marilyn Gelzhiser have been laying the foundation for the comprehensive plan, called Allegheny Places, for 18 months. They've established its scope and a 48-member advisory committee, lined up public and private funding for the two-year, $2.5 million-$3 million project and hired the lead consultant -- McCormick Taylor, a Philadelphia-based engineering and planning firm with an office in Green Tree, to produce the final document.

"Think of a comprehensive plan as the public sector's version of a business and marketing plan," Heckman said, one that will establish an economic development policy to target and focus initiatives to improve the quality of life in Allegheny County.

It also will guide physical development in the county, taking into consideration land use, housing, transportation, utilities, community facilities and natural and historic resources. The plan will set the vision for the future and also lay out the road map to get there.

"We are walking the fine line between a plan that's a physical plan and a plan that's a land-use plan," Gelzhiser said, because municipalities direct land use through planning and zoning.

Eighty percent of municipalities already have their own comprehensive plans, some current and others outdated. McCormick Taylor will evaluate them and coordinate with them as needed for consistency.

"There are a lot of plans being created out there, and they're not being combined in any way that makes sense," Gelzhiser said. "We've developed guidelines to allow them to integrate seamlessly so we can all work together and bring them into an official state plan."

For counties and municipalities, the carrots are that the state is more likely to fund projects and provide speedier grants and permits in regions with comprehensive plans. Allegheny County's plan also will provide planning tools and model zoning ordinances for municipalities and access to GIS data and mapping of buildings, roads and terrain. If a municipality wants to manage development along a main road or in a greenway, the plan will provide model overlay zoning districts that can be adopted in whole or in part.

Next month, Heckman, Gelzhiser and their consultant team will take their show on the road to launch Allegheny Places. They'll be coming soon to a community facility or group near you, looking for the public participation they regard as key to a successful plan. We'll all be able to follow the plan online as it evolves, as each step will be on an accessible Web site. Since July, Heckman and Gelzhiser have been seeking input through an online quality-of-life survey, to which 6,000 residents have responded. Register your opinion at www.county.allegheny.pa.us/economic/survey04.

For the county's 130 fiefdoms, the comprehensive plan is an invitation and an opportunity to develop a perspective that stretches beyond their own boundaries.

The state also is encouraging adjacent municipalities to adopt joint comprehensive plans, as Rosslyn Farms, Crafton and Thornburg have done. Who knows what could happen in years to come if municipalities start planning together now? They might even get the newfangled notion that they can merge services and governments.

It's about time, you say?

Pennsylvania, at long last, is realizing it's also about place.